Heart of a Dragon
by Karasuhato the Raven-Dove
Summary: Rudra no Hihou + Metroid series? This is what this is folks! Actual sumary: Ridley approaches a woman that can help him repent his ways. Co-written with Ultima Mayu!
1. A New Frontier

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Heart of a Dragon

By Karasuhato, the "Raven Dove"

(karasuhato@ecmail.i-p.com)

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and 

Ultima Mayu

(mayu_roxx@hotmail.com)

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The "Metroid" series is copyright of Nintendo co. ltd.

"Rudra no Hihou" (Rudra's Secret Treasure) is copyright of Squaresoft and Graphical Corporations CROWD inc.

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Karasuhato's Key/Legend to story elementals:

= A character's thoughts

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italics=character's point of view

CAPITAL LETTERS= character talking loudly

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In every place where there is evil and darkness, purity and light will be there to guide the way.

-Anonymous 

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A New Frontier

Three worlds, one entity of pure nothingness, casts everything into the oblivion, which is called by many, "The Black Hole" of space........

.........Planet Zebes was no more. After the defeat of the Mother Brain, a great cataclysm took place, destroying the whole planet. A few creatures escaped from the planet's great devastation, Space Hunter Samus Aran, the Dachora bird and the Etecoons. 

However, Ridley, the great space dragon that was thought to be dead on the deserted planet of Zebes, was recovered and well, thanks to some space dragons from Planet Aeon, whom call themselves the "Aeonese". Ridley thought of himself to be the last of his race, since the mother ship he was born on exploded, leaving him the sole survivor of the explosion. He was then taken to Zebes by the Zebesian clan and was raised by them and their leader the Mother Brain.

The irony was that the Zebesian were no where in sight. Even the Zebesians that survived the cataclysm on their home world, were said to be sucked into the nothingness of beyond and cast into the oblivion, which was good for the Galactic Federations, but bad for Ridley. Ridley seemed to have been very depressed to hear about the news. He was happy to see his own clan growing strong, but that still was not enough to make Ridley feel better. He just did not know what to do anymore. General Arvis of the Neo-Aeonese mother ship came into Ridley's sector of the mother ship to check up on him.

"Ridley, are you just going to sit here all day staring into outer space like a wrecked satellite?" Arvis said, poking at Ridley. However, Ridley did not want to make eye contact with the turquoise dragon.

"I don't care!" Ridley mumbled irritably. "I think I lost my will to live!" Arvis just gotten so tired of the depression and had to make Ridley get back his senses.

"Ridley, don't talk like that!" Arvis said as he slapped Ridley. "There was nothing we could do to save everything on Zebes. At least you are now healthy, recovered and have to move on!" Ridley swiftly turned around, giving Arvis a cold, nasty look.

"LOOK, how would you like it if everyone you knew gotten sucked into nothingness and disappeared from this galaxy, HUH?" Ridley sneered, grabbing Arvis by the neck. "I bet you would hate it! That is what happened to everyone and everything I once knew! But I bet you don't give a damn, you just think I'm losing my mind. That is what you think." Then, Kary, the silver second-in-command Aeonese, came bursting into the room with a rather appalled expression on her draconian face.

"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?" Kary yelled out as she pulled Ridley and Arvis away from each other. "I swear, can you guys just go for one day without getting into arguments over stupid, petty little things that happened long ago?"

"Well, Kary......Uhhhhh, Arvis was er...., being selfish and pushy all the time!" stuttered Ridley. "He needs not to be so into himself."

"RIDLEY, GROW UP AND ACT YOUR AGE! I swear, if you quit acting like a little bratty child, maybe I would not be so pushy and nag you so much!" Arvis shouted. Kary just stood there and rolled her eyes in disgust thinking how immature Ridley and the head general were acting.

"STOP IT, BOTH OF YOU!!!" Kary yelled impatiently. "I don't care who started to argue, I just want it to stop." Both Ridley and General Arvis started to shudder nervously and nodded their heads.

"Yes ma'am! Okay....!"

"Okay now, me and the other crew want to show you two something very important." Kary said calmly. "Now, follow me." Kary led the two out of Ridley's sector of the mother ship and headed through some corridors that led to the cockpit area. It appears that the Aeonese ship was approaching an unknown planet.

"We are heading to some planet with signs of life on it." One of the mechanical pilots announced on the intercom to everyone aboard the ship. "We shall land on the planet and investigate the strange new world and civilization, if there is any."

Meanwhile, as the Aeonese mothership started to hit the atmosphere of this world, the five races that inhabited this planet started to observe the great ship with anticipation. There were the omnipresent Humanoids, mighty Kyojin Giants, the Reptilian Hahchu-Rui, the amphibious, semi-humanoid Mizushu-Sai (Denizens of Water) and the enlightened Danan Mystics, all looking forward to greeting the strange mother ship.

"Great beings are arriving to the planet ALREADY?" Marina, the princess of the Mizushu-Sai shrieked as she dove off into the marshy woodlands to warn her people. In the Danan dominant regions of Wren and the northern woods near Torle Mountain were all gathered around to see the great ship.

"We must await the coming of these new beings from far away." Ramyleth's replacement Danan Chief said as he gathered all of the inhabitants of the region to observe the landing. While in the great city of Babel, Hahchu-Rui prince, Pipin, Danan child Lolo and Garlyle, the leader of a rebellious gang were in great awe as the mother ship blocked out the sun.

"What's happening?" cried the nervous Pipin. Garlyle decided to comfort the young reptilian boy and convince that nothing was to go wrong.

"I am not too sure......." sighed Garlyle. "..... But since this great ship comes form the deep voids of space, they could be more Rudras or Divine entities. So we must be on our best behavior." 

"I'll say." Lolo replied in great awe and fear at the same time. "We don't want to get punished and have to suffer." Near the Kryunu Dynasty, in the South-West continent, at the monastery of the Kyojin, Kotodama master Ture and other giants of his kind were rather impressed as the ship started to come closer and closer to the planet.

"Isn't this something." Ture said calmly observing the great mothership.

"Heh, I'll say!" one Giantess responded. "This planet is advanced, but not THAT advanced!" Meanwhile, on the Aeonese mothership, the Aeonese dragons were figuring out plans on what to do when they arrive on a spot to land on the planet.

"The planet, it is so tremendous!" Arvis sighed, feeling relieved to finally make a discovery.

"I have not seen anything like it. Amazing!" Kary responded, being equally satisfied as Arivis. Ridley, on the other hand, did not know what to do.

"What are we going to do when we arrive at our landing spot?" Ridley asked impatiently, Arvis, Kary and other Aeonese crew members observed the great planet, thinking of a plan. Finally, one plan came to the mind of Arvis.

"I want everyone to split into five, great parties and explore uncharted lands." Arvis announced, as he gathered up all of the crew members, splitting them into individual groups. Arvis and Kary gathered the other four parties and Ridley led them to portable space vehicles that will send them all to each region of the world. Ridley looked around the room as everyone else left, feeling clueless. 

"Just to let you know Ridley, you are coming with me and Kary." General Arvis said to Ridley as he installed a mini-monitor on Ridley's chest.

"What is the meaning of this strange monitor thing?" Ridley asked, feeling rather odd.

"If you plan to temporarily separate from us Ridley, we will have to monitor your behavior!" Kary replied sternly. "We are here to peacefully communicate with the beings of this world, not to start pointless wars."

"Yeah Ridley, and if you plan to bring back a specimen from this planet, DON'T YOU DARE HURT IT OR KILL IT!" Arvis warned Ridley. "Or you will have to be........SEVERELY PUNISHED FOR YOUR ACTIONS!" Ridley looked nervous and nodded his head frantically.

"Yes sir, I shall be okay with that!" Ridley responded as they finally found their main landing spot, on the southern most continent. As Ridley, Kary and Arvis headed out of the mother ship, many people of the planet, looking like humans, but were smaller, had abnormal hair and eye colors, odd garments and strange marks on their body to distinguish them from Earth humans. Alongside them were Dark skinned mystics with big ears, Gigantic people, semi-humanoid amphibians with fish tails and strangely enough, Reptilian looking people. Every soul of the planet looked highly anticipated.

"What the hell are these creatures trying to do to us?" Ridley mumbled to the General and his second in command assistant. "They look like they want to start a war with us." Arvis just shook his head in his hands.

"I don't think so Ridley." Arvis whispered back. "They have awaited us, they think we are higher beings."

"Besides, we are on a good will mission." Kary said to both Ridley and Arvis. "Plus, from the looks of it, this planet was through many wars and strife. Maybe there could be peace for these people for ONCE." As the Aeonese dragons were conversing with each other, every person of this Planet started to bow down and pray to these creatures of space.

"The great Rudras have finally arrived to this planet of ours." A high priest announced. This only confused the Aeonese even more.

"I don't like the looks of this." Ridley whispered to himself. "They must be screwed up in the head."

"They think of us as gods Ridley." Kary calmly whispered to Ridley, making sure no one in the crowd would hear.

"We are the people of Dai-Chi, which means 'Great Soil'!" the High Priest told the Aeonese dragons. "We awaited the day you mighty ones would come! Tell us about your origins!" Both the people of "Dai-Chi" and "Aeon" exchanged handy items and gifts to each other. The items of Dai-Chi seemed to be sacred and were to come in rather handy.

"We have a warning to give you all!" Arvis announced. "Ever heard of a nothingness from beyond?" Everyone in the audience looked shocked and scared.

"YES! WHAT ABOUT IT?" Everyone shouted.

"So far, it swallowed up the planet Zebes and it's neighbors. We need to help your planet and we need you all to help our planet as well, since any one of us could fall victims to the nothingness' oblivion." Kary said to the people of Dai-Chi. A humanoid sorcerer came out from the audience, whom appeared to be 24-25 years old and wore mostly blue garments that matched his long. lapis hued locks and wore a hat with some feathers and sacred medals.

"I could help!" the sorcerer shouted out from the crowd. "A few years ago, I was one of the four heroes that stopped the cycle of 'Rise and Downfall' that once threatened our planet. The four elder gods gave up their life force and gave it to me and the others that stopped the cataclysm." Then, the sorcerer lifted a red piece of his garments up, revealing the sacred Jade, which was a sign of becoming an Arch-Rudra. "By the way, my name is Surlent. I am one of the new generation of sacred heroes. This Jade is the proof of great godly-hood."

"Okay Surlent Humanoid, thank you." Arvis bowed down in courtesy. Ridley, on the other hand, had other things on his mind.

"I must investigate this bizarre world. It is like nothing I have ever seen before."

"Okay Ridley." Kary replied. "However, we will monitor each and every one of your actions. One heinous move and you ass will be grounded up, got that?" Ridley nodded his head and accepted this proposal of Kary and Arvis. Ridley decided to fly and take off to the sky, observe how large a world Dai-Chi was. But there were some questions that plagued Ridley's mind.

"Mmmmmm, where to go? Seems this world is much bigger than Zebes." Ridley thought to himself. The thoughts kept coming and coming. "Will I run into the others that traveled here? I wonder what they are thinking?" As Ridley was deep in thought, one question plagued him severely and he started to feel concerned.

"Oh lords, I hope the Galactic Federation won't know that I am here or I'm dead!" Ridley continued to fly around the planet, observing the diversity in flora and fauna and all of the strange locations and climates of the world. IT was way different from anything on planet Zebes or any other planet he experienced, excluding Aeon, which he can hardly remember a thing of that planet. Then, Ridley's eyelids started to feel heavy and he knew he must stop somewhere. 

"I'M BEAT!" Ridley yawned as he was ready to land on a northeast continent consisted of mountains, forestland and a peaceful village called "Kahn". He found a dense bog of peat moss in the forest and started to curl up in fetal position, letting his own eyes shut. "Finally, it is about time to get some shut eye for once!"

The calm foliage, the chirping birds, the crickets singing, and the calm breeze in the woods was quite a relaxing experience. Zebes was somewhat relaxing too, but a lot of the civilization was subterranean, aquatic, centered at the planet's core or was brought up in a mechanical environment. But everything on Dai-Chi was full of fresh air and rich with vegetation that finally had a chance to grow in what was once a war-torn and heavily polluted land. But suddenly, some living plants or insects beings would come by and interrupt Ridley's well deserved break.

"UGH! Damn plants, leave me alone!" Ridley groaned as he scorched the plants with his cloudy fire breath, leaving the plants well charred. "Ahhhh, much better!"

That was only a minor nuisance. Every bug and snail that passed by became Ridley's food for the night. Ridley was peacefully resting, trying hard not to let little things bothering him. Up in the trees, a brave and gallant young woman was peacefully observing the Aeonese dragon in his sleep. Her fiery red hair was blowing in the breeze, like angel hair and cottonwood blowing in the wind. She wore crimson armor, plated with some silver, brass and leather to hold things in place. In the stomach of the armor, was the Sanskrit symbol for 'Savior'. Underneath her crimson armor, she wore a snowy white dress with vermilion hems at the bottom. On her forehead, she was born with the "Holy Jade", that helps her communicate with living things, whether it would be animals, plants, nature or even higher entities.

"What a strange being. Never seen anything like it!" the young woman thought to herself in curiosity. "Definitely not of this planet. Hmmm, I wonder what it is like when it is awake." The young woman drank the rest of the tea in her liquid container. Once finished with her drink, she threw the empty container at Ridley, whom is definitely not the one to abruptly wake up.

"Graaaaah......WHAT NOW?" Ridley was really cranky, feeling the metal container being thrown at him. "Whoever did this, I'm going to.........." All of the sudden, a bright light of the Yang/Holy element shone really bright through out the woods. The light was so bright, Ridley had to shut his eyes, thinking that if he looked more, he would go blind. 

"Oh, oh, this is like staring into the sun! ACK!" Ridley shouted as the light shone throughout the woods. Then, the light started to get duller and duller, transforming into a young woman with the jade in her forehead.

"Ha ha ha ha ha! Hello great one!" the young woman chuckled playfully. Ridley gotten raver provoked over the fact that he assumed the young woman to be one of the sacred Arch-Rudra heroes, due to the Holy Jade imbedded into her forehead.

"Whaaaaaaa......what are you?!" Ridley screeched in shock. "Who are you?" The young woman started to laugh even more and looked like quite the determined type.

"Hmmm......Well......" the young woman softly said. Ridley just stood and eyed the woman curiously. The woman slightly shoved Ridley over and disappeared into the bushes. "You got to catch me first! Hee hee hee hee hee hee!"

"Okay missy, I will!" Ridley shouted in enthusiasm. The Aeonese dragon started to search right and left for the spunky young woman, whom kept vanishing and re-appearing in many different spots of the woods, giving out some good natured, playful laughs.

"You are catching on really well my friend!" the young woman cheered out of nowhere. Ridley, with all of his speed, tried to catch up to the young woman and search for her. Suddenly, she re-appeared into the tree tops. "Catch me if you can!"

"I'm not far behind!" Ridley chuckled as he flew with all his might, catching up to the stealth fully gliding young woman. Before he knew it, Ridley founf himself near this young woman and caught her by her dainty waist.

"I GOT YA! HA HA HA HA HA!" Ridley shouted.

"Yaaaaaaaah! Hey there dragon, you are pretty good!" Ridley gotten rather curious about the woman and wanted to know more about her. Ridley has never ever felt this way about a living being not of Zebes.

"Who might you be lady?" Ridley calmly asked.

"I am Riza, the Neo-Rudra that calls out to beings in need of a helping hand. And you?" 

"Me? I am Ridley. Mmmm....this is one strange planet. Never seen anything like it, ever!" Then, as Ridley and Riza glided down from the trees, Ridley collapsed on the ground, groaning rather loudly and feeling rather strange about what has been going on recently.

"RIDLEY, ARE YOU OKAY!?" cried out Riza, feeling concerned for the great being. She wrapped her arms around Ridley, and noticed many thoughts going through his mind.

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This is so odd....most creatures either are afraid or disgusted of me, knowing of my fierce reputation of being a Raider of space or they want to fight me, which is an unlucky choice for them to make, since I am much more powerful then the misfortunate victims thought. This girl, Riza, however, does not feel this way about me at all, even though she is equipped with a rather powerful sabre of some sort. And I know I would not want to kill her, she is innocent. She had nothing to do with anything in the Zebes galaxy nor the Galactic federation. I have never felt this way about a humanoid being before!

"So Ridley, you were involved in some criminal activity?" Riza curiously asked. "I knew you did not want to kill me, even though you used to be biased about humanoid or mammalian creatures. How did you know about how I felt?"

"WHAT!?" cried out Ridley. "Did you just read my mind?"

"Indeed I did!" Riza said calmly. "Remember, the Holy Jade I was born with gave me some special psychic abilities, so that is how I know what different creatures are thinking." The red-violet dragon started to blush bright red, feeling a tad sheepish,

"So sorry Riza." Ridley sighed. "I bet you think I am no good and want to rid of me?" Riza started to have a few tears running down her face and embraced Ridley.

"No, I would not kill you!" cried Riza. "There is no such thing as pure good, neutrality or evil. Everyone has their blacks, whites and shades of grey and eventually, everything changes their ways, sometimes for the better, other times for the worse. What has happened in your life?" Ridley bowed his head, but knew he had to tell Riza a little about himself.

"Well, Riza....." Ridley sighed. If Ridley would not have cried so much when he lost the people he knew, he would let out some tears, but he just can't, because he was tired from sobbing. ".....I once was a leader of Space Pirates from the Planet Zebes and was a servant of the bio-mechanical life force called 'Mother Brain'. I basically did what she told me to do, hunt, plunder, maim, kill and destroy. After the Mother Brain was destroyed by a bounty hunter known as Samus Aran, a time bomb was set, causing a great cataclysm to take place on Zebes, destroying or ruining everything on the planet. Most of the Zebesian people I knew died in the cataclysm or the survivors got sucked into a great being of nothingness, being lost forever in the oblivion."

"You are from Planet Zebes Ridley?" Riza calmly asked. Ridley shook his head,

"I have more to tell you Riza. I found out I was actually not from Zebes when a great crew of Space Dragons rescued me on post-cataclysm Zebes. Me and the dragons were from planet Aeon. General Arvis of the Aeonese Dragons told me he once knew my father and mother long ago. I was born on the old mother ship called 'Anikki", which was destroyed by an unknown force. The only thing that was known is that I was one of the few that made it into an escape pod. For the longest time, when I was raised on Zebes, I thought I was the last of my kind and was referred to as a Zebesian Dragon, which was not true. There were never space draconians on that planet, until my pod crashed there. I never knew my parents......" Ridley's head slumped down in pity. Riza, feeling sympathetic for the Aeonese dragon, started to come closer to him, even giving him a soft embrace again.

"I know what you mean Ridley." Riza sighed as tears built up into her large, innocent, brown eyes. "I knew my mother for a while, until an evil spirit started to eat up her life force. I had to kill the evil spirit, but un-fortunately, my mother DIED alongside the entity, now I don't know if she re-incarnated or decided to stay at Gaff, the great netherworld for the deceased spirits, to keep the deceased deities and Rudras company." Riza started to sob hard and buried her face into Ridley's arms.

"That is so sad Riza." Ridley whispered calmly. It was the first in a long time Ridley actually felt empathy for a living creature. "Do you have any friends or surviving family members?"

"Ehhhh...." sobbed Riza. "Even though I was born out of 'chastity' (where a woman is impregnated by a godly force), my 'father' seemed to have died when I was rather young, so I have never known him very well. However, my grandfather is alive and well, so are my friends. I befriended Scion, Surlent and Dune, whom are also destined to become a Neo-Rudra, like me. We saved life on the planet together. Then, there is Garlyle, a rebellious young man from the city of Babel, which is not too far from here. Even though he has a crush on me, I just like him as a friend or brotherly figure! And there is Pipin, young prince of the Reptilian Hahchu-Rui race. Marina, the Mizushu-Sai's princess and the children of Babel"

"You are one lucky girl Riza. I think you will do just fine in life, because you are a kind, good girl." Ridley said, feeling a bit better. "For me, however, I must leave....." As Ridley gotten up and got ready to leave, Riza stood by his side.

"WAIT!" cried out Riza. Ridley looked back at Riza, smiling.

"What is it Riza?"

"May I please come with you!?" Riza said. Ridley smiled and nodded.

"I see no objection at all." Ridley said calmly as he could. "Just let the ones you know and love know where you are okay? Because I don't want people to think that you were captured."

"Thank you!" Riza said as she hugged the Aeonese dragon. Then, Riza was on her knees, eyes tightly shut, hands clasped together and Jade glowing and sparkling frantically. Riza saw her friends in different situations. Her grandpa, Zekou was deeply meditating in Kahn. Marina was in the wet lands near Lomah, being a "tour guide" for the others from planet Aeon. Garlyle spent time with his child friends and re-united Pipin with his childhood friend of the northern wood's village, Lolo, at Babel. Scion, the swordsman and carrier of the "Life Jade", was at his night shift job of guarding the Kryunu dynasty's palace. Surlent, the sorcerer and carrier of the "Re-Birth" jade was conversing with Gen. Arvis and Kary, knowing more about their native planet. As for Dune, thief and carrier of the "Death Jade", he was out with his childhood pal, Kidd, searching for the ten lost treasures of the Rudra god beings. All of their duties were interrupted by Riza telepathically communicating with them all.

_"Friends, this is I, Riza! I shall leave Dai-Chi, but do not worry or cry, I will still help those in need and keep a watch out for the nothingness from beyond or foreign invaders. Good luck to you all and please help each other. Thank you and farewell........!"_

As Riza's voice faded away, everyone she knew and loved regained high hopes and confidence from their friend, the one with the "Holy Jade". Meanwhile, at Oriab in the south, Arvis and Kary knew they had to pack up after hearing the special message from the sacred Neo-Rudra.

"Surlent, we have to leave right now. Ridley is done traveling for now!" Kary explained to the sorcerer.

"Thank you for letting us stay wise one." Arvis said as he stretched out his long, expanding wings.

"You are very welcome." Surlent replied as he was fixing his glasses. " I just can't believe that Riza is growing up so fast. I wish her good luck on the journey. Take care!"

"Don't worry, everything will be just fine!" Arvis said cheerfully. Kary had to watch Ridley closely from her portable monitor, observing what he is up to.

"So, Ridley found a female humanoid." Kary said softly. "He seems to be strangely attached to this young woman. That is so unlike him, I thought he hated humanoids or mammalian beings."

"Strange indeed." Arvis responded. "I hope the young woman will show Ridley the right way in life and correct his wrong doings. Everything was packed in the mothership, Arvis, Kary and the mechanical pilots got ready to take off, heading to the continent where Riza was hanging out with Ridley. Riza started to jump up in surprise as she saw a great, bright outline of the Aeonese mothership.

"Oh wow, what is that?" Riza said in awe as she admired the many coloured lights coming from the ship.

"This is the mothership of Aeon, hereby called *'The Hana-Nim'. You are welcomed to come along. It shall take us into space."

"Amazing!" Riza sighed out as she climbed onto Ridley's back and flew up there with him to the entrance of the mother ship, Hana-Nim. Ridley knew that he felt some great changes going on in his life after he has met Riza. However, this was only the beginning for things to come. 


	2. Getting Acquainted

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Heart of a Dragon

By Karasuhato, the "Raven Dove"

(karasuhato@ecmail.i-p.com)

****

and 

Ultima Mayu

(mayu_roxx@hotmail.com)

****

---

The "Metroid" series is copyright of Nintendo co. ltd.

"Rudra no Hihou" (Rudra's Secret Treasure) is copyright of Squaresoft and Graphical Corporations CROWD inc.

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Karasuhato's Key/Legend to story elementals:

= A character's thoughts

__

italics=character's point of view

CAPITAL LETTERS= character talking loudly

****

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Getting Acquainted

It was the year 4002, according to the new lunar calendar of Planet Dai-Chi , It was at least eight years since the last mission on the late Planet Zebes. Usually, Samus Aran, the mightiest bounty hunter of space, would usually be celebrating during the successful mission on Zebes, but something was missing from her life. The bounty hunter seemed to be rather close to what was assumed to be the last Metroid alive, only to see it sacrifice it's life for her, so she could finally destroy the Mother Brain. After that, there was a time bomb set up to destroy the planet, but not without rescuing the creatures she befriended and grew up with. However, that was not enough to heal Samus' mental scars.

"Hmm...it's just not the same....." Samus somberly said to herself, trying to get some sleep, but just couldn't. She brushed her auburn hair out of her face, trying to look around her dark room, but nothing in site, except her clock that said 4:00 AM. She was never this lonely in her life.

"Oh well. I just might as well go back and get some rest for once!" Samus thought to herself as she started to slowly shut her eyes and try to get some rest that she yearned for. She started to have a strange vision go through her head.

Was it a dream or was it not?!

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Samus started to find out her armor has changed since the Metroid young gave her it's powers. Now, the armor was blue and yellow, only the helmet remained red. On her left arm, while her right arm had her arm gun, there were strange spikes on it, so she could scratch up her enemies as well. She has now taken a new, much more improved Space vessel out into space. The flight went smoothly and all was well, however, a new planet was in sight of the experienced bounty hunter, looking similar to Planet Hatikva, the new home for the Chozo that survived on Zebes and were led by Samus to find this new world. But on the other hand, Samus has never seen this planet before and decided to investigate for a while.

The Planet was different from anything she has even seen before. Mostly everything was on the surface, save for a few caves here and there and there was sunlight shining on the surface, a sight that Samus has never seen in a long time. The planet was also eerily quiet as well, but Samus still suspected something was hiding on this planet. So she turned on the radar scope and search out for new life on this planet and well enough, there was a sign of life on the planet. This indeed make Samus feel very suspicious of the life on the new planet.

"Aw shit, I have a terrible feeling about this!" Samus thought to herself in great discomfort, getting her gun and supplies ready in case of a surprise attack. Not knowing it, Samus was being stalked by a gigantic bird of prey, looking rather hungry for small creatures, flying over Samus and her spaceship. The shadow of the behemoth bird started to get closer and closer to the ground, stalking it's prey. Samus started to notice the shadow, hopped onto the roof of her spaceship and got ready to battle the great monstrosity. The claws started to grab the spaceship, trying to shake the bounty hunter off the roof and hoping it would get injured, but no such luck. Samus just sprang up and charged up her great Plasma weapon.

"Come to me and your are DEAD!" Samus shouted in great rage as the bright plasma lasers started to badly burn the behemoth bird on the chest, scorching off it's black feathers and causing a nasty wound. The bird then lifted Samus into the air with it's talons, clawing and groping her all over, trying to break the armor and eat what was inside. Only easier thought of than done, since Samus was not making it easy for the bird, squirming and tossing.

"DIE BASTARD DIE!" Samus shouted as she transformed into a sphere and started to bounce all over the creature, planting the infamous power bombs all over the creature. After one and another power bomb blasted, the behemoth bird fell to the ground with mangled wings, busted claws and no eye sight, leaving only bleeding, pus filled eye sockets. Samus was freed at last and strangely, without a scratch on the new armor. However, the monster was not to give up. Even though mortally wounded, the bird tried hard to search harder and harder for it's prey. With it's wounded wings, it tried to cause great winds, slightly Samus into the air. Samus filled her arm gun with the all powerful Super Missiles, frantically aiming for the great beast.

"Eat Super Missiles!" Samus yelled as she pummeled the creature with the Super Missiles, causing pieces of flesh and blood to fly out of the creature. For the grand finale, Samus super charged herself and started to shoot out a powerful rainbow laser, making the behemoth bird explode all over. Even though it was quite the gory mess, Samus herself felt rather relieved.

"It was about time!" Samus sighed as she was wading through the dead remains of the behemoth bird of prey, heading back to her ship. "I think I need to rest up!" 

But there was still more to come. Just before Samus reached the ship's entrance, some Draconian creatures started to surround her, being led by none other than..........

"RIDLEY!!!!!" Samus shouted in anger. "I thought you were dead!"

"That is what I wanted you to think." Ridley said smugly with a big grin on his draconian face. Out from behind Ridley, a young humanoid woman came out, trying to separate him and Samus. This made Samus even more astounded.

"So Ridley, capturing young ladies from other planets now?" Samus asked. "Let her go!"

"NO, YOU DON'T GET IT!" The young woman shouted. "We are here to warn you of a great danger heading to both of our solar systems!" The young woman cried out in sadness and great concern. "Please, something has to get done!"

"You better listen to her Samus." said another draconian. Samus started to point her gun at some of the space dragons.

"Leave me alone all of you or you will all bite the dust!" Samus shouted as she took off her helmet, wiped the sweat from her forehead and got ready to aim the gun at some of the draconians. This only got the young woman more upset and started to slap Samus over the head with her sword's sheath.

"LISTEN!" The young woman cried out, tears built up in her eyes. "We are all in great danger. There is a nothingness from beyond the voids of outer space planning to swallow our planets, the planet of the bird people and your GALACTIC FEDERATION! If you don't, we will all be sent into the oblivion and we don't know what lies beneath this new universe. Could be life or death, but we must banish it and not risk it, NO MATTER WHAT!" Samus nodded her head and took the young woman's words of advice.

"Very well then....." Samus said, sounding a little bit pleased. "......I'll do it for your people young lady, but I don't know about these draconian people, ESPECIALLY RIDLEY!"

"Very well Samus." Ridley said blankly. "However, if this nothingness comes soon, it is your funeral! Let that be a lesson to you Samus!"

---

Afterwards, Samus Aran awoke in cold sweat and started to breathe heavy, thinking about this strange dream of hers. Then, Samus slightly grinned sheepishly and shrugged her shoulders.

"Eh, it was just a dream. It did not hurt me." Samus said to herself. Then, out of the darkness, a great figure appeared from behind her and set it's hand on her shoulder. Samus jumped up and turned around nervously. "You! What is it?" As the creature backed off, it was revealed to be rather draconian looking and silver hued, but Samus was still ready to attack.

"I mean no harm lady!" the creature yelled. "I am not the one you call Ridley. I am Azrael, and I came to help you!" Samus slightly calmed down, but was still astounded.

"But you are the same creature as Ridley, a Zebesian dragon!" Samus said nervously. Azrael shook his head and put his arms by the side.

"No no, Ridley was never from Zebes, there was never a Zebesian dragon." Azrael responded. "We and Ridley are really from Planet Aeon. Ridley however, was raised by the people of Zebes and lived a life of crime and disorder. I, however, have came to help."

"Really...." Samus said smugly. "How shall you help the Galactic Federation?" 

"Let me explain here Samus." Azrael briefly stop to clear his throat. "I am a part of the Aeonese dragon crew, made to keep a watch out on Ridley to make sure he won't cause anymore crime or piracy. So far, we have all went to a very strange planet called 'Dai-Chi' and Ridley appeared to have 'captured' a humanoid girl from that planet, so the crew really has to keep a watch out now!" Samus dropped her jaw in shock and placed hands on her face.

"WHAT?" Samus screamed. "RIDLEY WAS SEEN AT THAT PLANET?" Azrael nodded his head. "AZRAEL, please show me the way to this planet."

"Yes Ma'am. But before we go, turn on the lights and take a look at your armor." Samus took his words for it, turned on the lights in her room and opened the closet where she stored her armor. To Samus' surprise, her armor has greatly changed ever since the Metroid larva handed down it's powers to her before being killed by the Mother Brain. The armor was more sleek looking and was cobalt with a crimson helmet, jade Arm Gun and hints of yellow in the armor, as well as spikes on the left arm. Samus was amazed to see that her dream armor was no longer a dream, now it is a reality!

"How amazing! This is what I have dreamed about!" cried Samus. "First, however, we need to go to the contact base of the Galactic Federation to tell them about Ridley's whereabouts. They are interested to hear about this as well!"

"Very well then. Many other of my kind are also finding work with your Galactic Federation as well, so we might just be in luck." 

---

As Samus and Azrael were going to the base of the Galactic Federation to tell them about a new planet and new civilization, Ridley, Arvis and Kary were helping Riza on getting acquainted with their mother ship.

"This ship is amazing!" Riza giggled as she headed to the center of a big room and spun around, her skirt cascading with her spinning movements. Ridley got rather captivated by the young woman and could not take his eyes off of her,

"That is the gathering place for the Aeonese." Arvis said to the young woman of the Holy Jade. "This place is also a great entertainment center for the people of Planet Aeon." The Aeonese then led Riza around some more, now to a room with many tables and barstools.

"Let me guess, this is the place to eat and drink." Riza said, smiling. "We have these on our planet as well. They are known as restaurants, pubs, cafes and lounges."

"Wow Riza, you are quite a smart one indeed." Kary replied. "Just to let you know, if you are hungry, come in here. Are you hungry?"

"Naw, not yet." Riza responded. "I got done eating back on my planet hours ago. I'll come here in case I am hungry again. Thank you!"

"Anytime Riza." Kary laughed. Riza started to suddenly started to feel itchy and dry.

"Uhhhhh......" Riza stuttered. ".....are there any places to bathe around here?" Ridley signaled Riza to follow him down a few halls and to a room that resembled the Ryokan of Planet Dai-Chi (Ryokan is a Japanese-styled bathing place), complete with showers, sauna tubs and some old-styled urinals where more than one could go at once and flush when they are done relieving themselves. It looked different from her own home world, but trying new things won't hurt for a while.

"This is the room to ones to relieve themselves." Ridley explained, not taking his eyes off of Riza. This seemed rather odd to Ridley, since he has not seen any others females, whether it was of his race or not, so lovely. "Enjoy yourself Riza."

"Thank you Ridley!" Riza un-packed her things, got out her kimono and fresh under garments. Riza started to detach her armor from her body and took off her white dress from underneath her armor, putting it in a bin to clean things and keep them in tact. She turned on the warm shower head and slipped her sleek, nude body into the shower. Riza was amazed at how big the shower room was, but then again, her kind were dwarves compared to the Aeonese Dragon Clan. It was quite a refreshing change of pace to what she was used to on her own planet. There, it seemed like the Ryokan bath houses seemed cramped and tight, but on Aeon, they seem more wide and roomy. 

After Riza gotten herself cleaned up in the showers, she slipped into her shimmering kimono that flowed like liquid metal and was silky soft against her flesh. As she came out of the restroom, Ridley came to greet the young woman and held her small, lithe hand.

"Come to where you shall stay." Ridley calmly said as he led Riza, hand to hand, to the room where Riza shall rest her exhausted body. Ridley pointed out quite a wide room with a huge, wide window looking out into space, complete with blinds in case of privacy needs from the other ships that fly by. The walls and ceiling were silvery blue and were yet warm instead of cold and a huge round bed complete with pillows and a collection of thin blankets, for Ridley did not need blankets, since he was of the fire element, but he only used the blankets to warm him up whenever it got cool in the ship.

"This is where you should stay Riza. It is also my room as well, but you may have it for tonight." Riza slightly blushed, but accepted the offer, since the Aeonese Dragon seemed to be rather polite towards her.

"Thank you Ridley." Riza said as she bowed to Ridley, showing her mannerisms. "But what about you? Where will you stay?"

"Don't worry Riza, I will be fine for now. Besides, I am not really that tired yet."

"Okay then, thank you!" 

Riza then, slightly turned her back, slipping off the robes in front of the Aeonese dragon. She felt a little sheepish doing so, but she felt more used to sleeping without anything on her. Her body was quite slender, yet correctly proportioned. Ridley's eyes started to widen at the sight of this.

"Just wondering......" Riza calmly said, slightly blushing nervously. "......Is nudity a taboo in your society?" Ridley closed his eyes and shook his head.

"No, certainly not!" Ridley started to get more curious as he observed the young woman. "Ehh....Riza, could you please turn around, so I could get a better glimpse of you?"

"Uhhhh, sure!" Riza's face was now a bright red. No male, whether humanoid or not, did not seem to fell this way with Riza, not even Garlyle, the rebel leader of Babel that had a crush on her. Therefore, she seemed to be rather modest for a long time, until now. So Riza slowly turned around, taking her arms off of her well rounded, fully endowed bosom. Ridley got rather astounded at the sight of her well-endowed mammaries, the things that only Mammals or mammalian-like creatures could have. Her waist was slim and had quite some nice thighs. Ridley just could not take his eyes off of Riza, it was like being face to face with a god being of his wildest dreams. 

"Heh, heh heh.....quite nice indeed!" stuttered Ridley, feeling rather flustered. Riza stood there, caressing the dragon's chest area.

"It is okay, I know what it is like when a creature from a foreign world examines the anatomy of an unknown being, such as I am to you." Riza started to feel her weariness touch her." Well.....good night Ridley!" As the young woman sealed her eyes shut, Ridley smiled back at her and slowly shut the door and pulled down the blinds. The Aeonese Dragon started to feel quite restless, many thoughts on his mind, plaguing him for days and nights. He just could not help, but to think of Riza and the various racial groups of Dai-Chi, a place he found quite fascinating. 

"Dai-Chi is not like anywhere else I have been to!" Ridley thought to himself. "It was like I stepped into the promised land or something...." As Ridley headed out of the room, he witnessed the computers acting rather dysfunctional and wires moving around like restless earthworms. Suddenly, from the monitors, eerie whistling noises emitted out and echoed from the hallways. "Ugh, this is not a good sign!" First the Galactic Federation, now THIS!"

Ridley started to violently attack the whistling monitors and wrestle with the strange wires. Something started to strike Ridley's mind, could these computers be POSSESSED? As Ridley kept attacking with both firepower and muscle power, he was all of the sudden blasted with a big surge of light.

"YAAAAAOUCH!" Ridley shouted in pain, covering his eyes. "What is the meaning of this?" As Ridley struggled to open his amber eyes, he saw a translucent figure appear in front of his face, coming out of the monitor like a frog leaping out of a pond. The figure resembled a woman in a flowing gold gown , with a gem crest on the chest area. Her face looked sorrowful and gentle at the same time through her long, wispy light green hair that flowed like kelp in the oceans and seas. Her arms appeared to have golden, gem crested wings attached to them and she had talons like a bird, instead of humanoid feet.

"Well, RIDLEY, have you been up to anything recently?" The woman said sternly as her crystal aqua eyes opened up to face the great dragon. Ridley looked stunned at the woman.

"HOW DID YOU KNOW WHO I WAS?" Ridley shouted in shock, having the feeling of fainting. "WHAT DO YOU WANT OUT OF ME WOMAN?" As Ridley tried to breathe out a wave of magma, she reflected it right back at him, only healing him more, since Ridley was born of fire.

"Ridley, will you PLEASE LISTEN?" The woman shouted in rage. Ridley faced the woman nervously and calmly agreed with her, since this looked like a creature that should not be messed with. "Well Ridley....I am the observer of the living beings and the deceased souls of the Netherworld. My name is MEIFA!"

"MEIFA? I did not know you were dead all ready, what is the meaning of all this?" Ridley screeched in fear. Meifa shut her eyes and laughed. 

"Don't be shocked Ridley. Don't forget that even deities die, only to rise from the ashes in a new form." Meifa explained to calm Ridley down. "I gave my life force to Riza, leaving my soul for the Netherworld, to tend the souls of the dead. Riza is an heir of mine and she promised to carry out the deeds of the Neo-Rudra, the newborn supreme beings."

"What the hell.....I did not know Riza was your heir!" Meifa nodded her head at the stunned being.

"Indeed. Well, since I have heard of your criminal pirate behavior of the past, this woman will help you change your ways for the better." Meifa started to look more rigid and determined. " DON'T YOU DARE HURT HER OR YOU ARE DEAD MEAT!"

"WHAT?" Ridley gasped. "I would never hurt such a being! What makes you think that?"

"Well, you were a leader of a gang of Pirates from Planet Zebes, right?" Meifa warily asked.

"Right, I used to be."

"You would kill or steal for the Mother Brain, wouldn't you?"

"Yes.......however, I have lost everyone on Zebes to a wicked vortex that swallows up everything in it's path, so what is the point?"

"Well, so far, I have noticed you have slightly changed your ways so far. Riza has helped you, however, think of the other beings in the galaxy, such as a space warrior you battled over and over again! Please don't fail me nor Riza!" After those words, Meifa de-materialized.

"Aw shit. I really got to watch my back NOW!" Ridley mumbled as he headed back to his room, thinking of Riza. As he headed back, he noticed Riza huddled up underneath some blankets The Aeonese dragon quietly slipped under the covers with the young woman. As he did so, her calm brown eyes softly opened up.

"Thank you for coming back." Riza whispered as if she was actually waiting for him to come back. Ridley just could not get the words of Meifa out of his head and decided to stick to them.

  
"Riza, who really is Meifa?"

"Meifa? Oh, she was one of the divine god heroes that smite the vortex that was hereby called "Nothingness of Beyond". She was also the creator of life of my planet. In fact, the humanoids, such as myself, are in reality the same race as Meifa and the divine heroes." Ridley's Amber eyes widened up in utter surprise.

"Amazing! I did not even know that your race on that planet were really demi-gods." 

"Now you do.... Hee hee hee hee!" Riza chuckled as she climbed on top of the Aeonese dragon, wrapping her arms around his waist, softly embracing him as the two bodies became even with each other.

"Errr....Riza...." Ridley wondered as the nude woman leaned on top of him, smiling. "Why do you feel this way about me? I thought you were afraid of me, especially when I told you my back-story!"

"Oh, no not me. You just need more love in your life." Riza crooned softly. "Besides, for a long time, I bet you do not know what it is......."

"No, I haven't for the longest time." Ridley responded. "But I have always yearned for it." No Female being, not even one of Ridley's species of Aeon, have ever felt this way about him. It was indeed what he has yearned for many years, and finally, his dream was full filled. However, he started to feel concern for Riza as well.

"Riza, aren't you afraid to bare off-springs live?" Riza shook her head.

"No......since I am a carrier of the sacred Jades, I could control my own fertility. That what distinguishes the Jade holders from normal life on Dai-Chi, or even of other planets. Anyone whom carries the Jades knows it for sure."

"Just wondering, is childbirth live painful." Ridley warily asked.

"Oh yes it does!" Riza sighed. "Three out of five of the races give live birth, the Danan Mystics, the Kyojin Giants and the Humanoids. The other two races, the Reptilian Hahchu-Rui and the aquatic dwellers of the wetlands, the Mizushu-Sai, lay eggs. Me, however, decided not to give birth at all."

"You are one lucky woman." Ridley replied.

  
"Indeed. Plus, there are some in the worlds whom are displeased with their children once they are born and rid of them. That is why I choose not to breed."

"I agree young woman. That is a good choice." Riza then started to softly embrace the Aeonese dragon more, the embrace getting tighter and tighter around the great being. Suddenly, Riza's flesh started to give off a soft, radiant glow, as if she were thawing out the frozen heart that Ridley had. He thought it was such a wonderful feeling for him, wishing that his mate would warm him up. Riza then started to tickle Ridley's chest with her tongue, reaching every scaly bit. Both of the creatures started to breathe rather heavily, feeling some great pleasure. Riza started to all of the sudden feel a strange feeling through her breasts.

"Oh dear...." Riza whispered as she noticed the weight on her breasts. As she looked down, she noticed that she was lactating divine milk, a liquid that only came from the divine beings' bosom. Ridley started to notice as well and felt rather odd about it.

"Uhhh....Riza....your bosom looks like it is melting!" Ridley whispered, feeling rather alarmed as he observed Riza's mammaries.

"Don't worry, I'm just giving off some milk. All females of godly-hood have the abilities to give off milk to the ones whom need to be fed, especially their young." Riza explained to calm Ridley down. "Since I carry the holy jade, I help out living beings on my planet, both warm and cold blood. I play wet nurse for the malnourished, giving them every nutrient they need in their sickly bodies."

"Interesting indeed." sighed Ridley as tilted his neck, and held Riza up to his head and carefully placed his beak up to Riza's delicate nipples, her soft round breasts, pressed up to his mouth. He softly licked and suckled up the liquid, trying to be careful not to harm Riza's petite body. It seemed to feel so loving and so maternal as well. Even though he was raised by the Mother Brain, she seemed to be rather cold and domineering, while Riza seemed to be easy going and warm.

Riza was also feeling great pleasure as well. Even though she has only done this with the needy of her planet, this was something completely different. This was more of a feeling of the Female expressing her love to the Male, rather than a bond between Mother and Child. After a while, the throbbing urges within both beings started to calm down and the inner-species couple decided to rest side by side, still in each other's arms. 

Meanwhile, back on Planet Dai-Chi, some of the remaining Aeonese Dragon colonies and the three remaining divine heroes, Scion, Surlent and Dune started to witness more space ships come down from the heavens, this time, not of Aeonese origin.

"What is the meaning of this!" cried out some of the Aeonese as they got the three heroes attention.

Those are definitely ships of foreign descent!" Surlent observed as Scion and Dune got out their weapons, in case there was a fight to break out.

"Don't just stand there Surlent!" cried Scion. "Get ready to fight these beings!" As the three heroes and the Aeonese got ready in case of a battle, a ship landed, revealing a mysterious person in blue armor, pled to them to drop their weapons.

"Stop the madness!" it said in a feminine voice. "I have not came here to attack!" With those words, everyone dropped their weapons and eyed the armored woman. She took off her helmet, looking rather rigid and determined.

"I am Samus Aran of the Galactic Federation! I need all of your help!" Scion, Surlent, and Dune walked up to Samus, kneeling to her in courtesy.

"What is the trouble?" Dune asked calmly.

"The Galactic Federation is tracking down an unknown vortex and a being that has captured some life from this planet!" Samus explained. The heroes and Aeonese were confused, but decided to come along.

"Okay....." Surlent said, feeling rather curious about the situation. Was Samus probably talking about Riza or the Nothingness of Beyond. The three heroes knew Riza could take care of herself, she was no shrieking violet in need of a handsome prince. As for the Nothingness of Beyond, that was a totally different matter. "Riza was not kidnapped, she came along those beings to help them reform!"

"Oh well, we should help out the bounty hunter called Samus." Dune thought to himself as the three heroes and Aeonese headed out of Planet Dai-Chi and into the deep voids of outer space.


	3. Escape

****

Heart of a Dragon

By Karasuhato, the "Raven Dove"

(karasuhato@ecmail.i-p.com)

****

and 

Ultima Mayu

(mayu_roxx@hotmail.com)

****

---

The "Metroid" series is copyright of Nintendo co. ltd.

"Rudra no Hihou" (Rudra's Secret Treasure) is copyright of Squaresoft and Graphical Corporations CROWD inc.

****

---

Karasuhato's Key/Legend to story elementals:

= A character's thoughts

__

italics=character's point of view

CAPITAL LETTERS= character talking loudly

****

---

Escape!

---

It was time for Riza to get up. She had enough resting up done for herself. However, Ridley was still exhausted and decided to lay down some more. Riza tightly shut her eyes and made herself glow radiantly.

"Meifa, please, give me your power..." Riza thought as she was making some pieces of silk, satin and yang (holy) crystals materialize in front of her. The young woman then started to form silvery feathers on her arms, and getting a tail of silver feathers as well. Her feet were also becoming talons as well. Her red hair was now full and wispy, free from her pony tail holder and headband. Then, the divine fabric and yang crystals started to wrap around her body, forming itself as a type of armor. The elastic armor had a yang crystal in her chest and two other crystals on her wings.

As the room softly glowed, Ridley slightly opened one eye to get a glance at Riza's transformation and was quite amazed at it. As Riza turned around, the dragon shut his eye and went back to sleep. Riza felt like she had some undone business that needed to be done, so she decided to leave the room, have something to eat and observe the surroundings . Ridley woke up again, and found some of Riza's silver feathers, crystal debris and her now cleaned armor and garments. He took all of those objects Riza left behind, and went back to bed, with the objects in his great arms.

As Riza observed the surroundings of the ship, making sure nothing was to go wrong, she went back and checked up on the Aeonese Dragon.

"Ridley......" Riza softly said, smiling. Ridley lifted his head and looked up at the new form of Riza.

"Is that you Riza...?" Ridley asked, being rather amazed at Riza's new form. It was quite similar to the being called Meifa.

"Yes Ridley, are you impressed?" Riza asked. "It helps me become more powerful. Or, do you like my other form better?" 

"I don't care. Whatever makes you feel better." Ridley responded, smiling. 

"Very well." Riza said softly. "Anyways, I need to check how safe we are and protect you guys from any harm." Riza then flew away. Ridley started to feel slightly concerned.

"Please be careful Riza! Danger could lurk anywhere....."

****

---

Out in the voids of space, away from home, Scion, Surlent and Dune were being introduced to the people whom worked with the Galactic Federation. They really did not want anything to do with the Galactic Federation's ideas of pursuing the Aeonese mother-ship, but what choice did they have? They were trapped.

"Okay guys, do you all know what you need to do?" Samus asked the men with the Jades. Scion, Surlent and Dune looked tense and felt nervous, but they knew what the bounty hunter and decided to play along until they find Riza.

"Eeeeh, I guess we have to find out where Riza went to?" Surlent asked nervously, his stomach being tied into a painful knot.

" And we must destroy the wicked dragons from Planet Aeon that turned against you...?" Scion stuttered. ".....uh....am I....right?"

"But we spare Riza, since she is one of us." Dune told Samus. The bounty hunter nodded her head and looked rather pleased.

"Indeed!" Samus replied, having a determined look on her face, brushing away her orange hair. "Our plan is to spare Riza, but get rid of a dragonian named 'Ridley'. Got that?" All three men nodded their heads, but had a look of great discomfort on their faces.

"Okay......I.....got that." Dune stuttered nervously. Samus noticed the looks on Scion, Surlent and Dune's face and felt rather concerned.

"What's wrong?" Samus asked. All the guys then started to smile sheepishly.

"Nothing! Nothing at all!" boasted Scion. Samus gave the Jade heroes an odd, concerned look.

"Okay. Very well then." Samus said as she exited the room where Scion, Surlent and Dune were staying. All of the sudden, Surlent, the leader, thought up of a plan.

"We know Riza was not kidnapped. She decided to go along with the Aeonese crew, right?" Surlent asked Dune and Scion. Both nodded their heads.

"Right!"

"Plus, she wanted to help one of them reform." Dune responded. Surlent started to take off his hat and scratch his head.

"Yes. Well, as we find their mother ship, with all our speed, we are going to catch up to Riza and her 'acquaintance' and then, we are all going to use the escape pods and get out of the ship as fast as possible, with Riza and her Aeonese partner."

"Uhhhh....Surlent." Scion said nervously. "Won't Samus find out that we separated from the Galactic Federation?"

"She might....." Surlent sighed. Dune had another idea.

"Hey Surlent!" Dune spouted. "Since we have the power of the ancient divine heroes, we could use their powers and abilities in case anything goes wrong." 

"Okay! Perfect!" Surlent responded happily. "I was thinking the same thing as well."

"Ha ha ha! I don't think anyone is a match for the divine powers and abilities we have." chuckled Scion, being his brave self again. Then, before they knew it, some sirens started to go off like crazy.

"ALERT! ALERT! WE ARE APPROACHING THE SPACE VESSEL HANA-NIM, WHICH BELONGS TO THE PLANET AEON! ALL MEMBERS OF THE GALACTIC FEDERATION, GET THE SPACE VESSEL AND RID THE CRIMINALS THAT MAY LURK THERE!"

"Guys!" Samus shouted, bursting into the guys' room, fully armored. "Get ready, we are going to raid the Aeonese mother ship!"

"Yes Ma'am!" the men responded as Samus left the room frantically. 

"Remember our plans?" Surlent whispered in Scion and Dune's ears, reminding them of the plans.

"Yes, we do." Scion said quietly. Dune started to look impatient.

"Now let's go right now, before Samus does!" So Scion, Dune and Surlent started to change into their forms that were passed down from the deities Saizou, Mitora and Houzhen. Scion became his giant horned knight form, Surlent started to form some radiance in his garments and Dune had extra pieces of web-like armor around him. All of them tried to sneak around, finding an exit way for them to leave without Samus or any other Galactic Federation members knowing about their escape. So Surlent, being wise as he is, turn off the emergency exit alarms and find an exit way for him, Dune and Scion to escape out of. Surlent carefully opened up the emergency exit door, and as they jumped out of the Galactic Federation ship and Surlent created a crystal bubble for him and the others to safely float down to the Aeonese mother ship, the "Hana-Nim".

As the Galactic Federation got pre-paired in their special exploration gears, Samus Aran started to have a strange feeling about the people from Planet Dai-Chi.

"Okay, we got almost everyone.....anyone missing?" the head chairman shouted out around the big crowd of space warriors. Samus started to raise her left hand into the air, trying to get the chairman's attention. "What is it Samus?"

"I don't think the foreigners have arrived here yet!" Everyone in the room looked suspicious.

"OH REALLY?" asked the chairman. "What are they up to now? Did you tell them that we were going to evacuate the Galactic Federation ship Samus and attack the Hana-nim?"

"Yes, I did, HONESTLY! Where could those Dai-Chi bastard have gone to at a time like this?" The chairman started to look concerned and had to think of idea, and quick.

"OKAY EVERYONE, BEFORE WE GO TO THE HANA NIM, SEARCH FOR THE WARRIORS FROM PLANET DAI-CHI!" 

As every person and being on the Galactic Federation ship were searching around, Surlent, Scion and Dune started to explore the Hana-Nim for themselves, hoping to search for Riza and her partner she was helping out, warning them of a planned attack. As they started to search every corridor, a couple of Aeonese dragon guards stood in their way, getting ready to attack.

"What are you doing here?" snarled one of the guards.

"Are you with the Galactic Federation and planning to attack us?" another guard asked in a rather stern, gruff sort of voice. 

"What is the meaning of this?" Scion asked, looking like he was ready to brandish his Apocalypse sword. Surlent and Dune jumped in the way, trying to prevent the Aeonese and Scion from battling.

"SCION!" Surlent shouted. "REMEMBER WHY WE ARE HERE?"

"WE ARE HERE TO HELP, NOT TO START FIGHTS!" Dune reminded Scion. All of the sudden, Scion's life jade in his right eye socket started to glow frantically, which triggered Surlent's Re-birth jade and Dune's Death jade to glow as well, making the Aeonese dragons back off, shielding their eyes from the radiant light.

"Good Lord! These people, they........" One guard stuttered hysterically. "..... THEY HAVE THE JADE! Just like the other one that is here!" Hearing those very words, the Jade warriors' glowing stopped, after hearing about another one with the jade.....

.....RIZA!

"Where is that one with the Jade?" Surlent asked frantically. One of the guards just shrugged their shoulders, looking clueless.

"Eh? Oh, she's with Ridley." one guard responded. 

"Who is Ridley?" Dune asked. Another guard stepped out.

"Ridley is the one that girl with the jade protects." the guard responded. "She is also helping him reform as well. Seems like he takes quite a liking to that young woman."

"Where are they though!?" Scion shouted. 

"Please, this is important." Surlent pled. "The Galactic Federation is here, we must help them." One guard made a signal for the three men to come here.

"Come, follow us!" the lead guard said as he hovered in the air. While Surlent, Scion, Dune and the Aeonese search around, Riza, in her deity form, felt the presence of the others whom carry the jades. 

"Ah......Aaaaaaaah!" moaned Riza in slight agony. "I can sense the others being here! They want to tell us something important." Ridley dropped some items in surprise, hearing what Riza had to say and how she was feeling. 

"The others? Who might they be?" Ridley asked in concern, holding onto Riza's shoulders.

"The others....WITH THE SACRED JADE!" wailed Riza. Ridley's eyes widened and started to look around.

"The 'Jade'? Others?" Ridley muttered as he shut his eyes tightly.

__

It started with landing on Dai-Chi.........

"I could help!"

"A few years ago, I was one of the four heroes that stopped the cycle of 'Rise and Downfall' that once threatened our planet. The four elder gods gave up their life force and gave it to me and the others that stopped the cataclysm." Surlent shows all the Aeonese the Re-Birth jade, indicating that he is a neo-Rudra.

"By the way, my name is Surlent. I am one of the new generation of sacred heroes. This Jade is the proof of great godly-hood."

I get it now! I GET IT! Riza then appears.

"Even though I was born out of 'chastity' (where a woman is impregnated by a godly force), my 'father' seemed to have died when I was rather young, so I have never known him very well. However, my grandfather is alive and well, so are my friends. I befriended Scion, Surlent and Dune, whom are also destined to become a Neo-Rudra, like me. We saved life on the planet together. Then, there is Garlyle, a rebellious young man from the city of Babel, which is not too far from here. Even though he has a crush on me, I just like him as a friend or brotherly figure! And there is Pipin, young prince of the Reptilian Hahchu-Rui race. Marina, the Mizushu-Sai's princess and the children of Babel"

After these thoughts, Ridley's eyes snapped open.

"You...mean the mage I ran into is your friend Riza?" Riza looked at Ridley, looking rather anxious.

"You mean Surlent, right?"

"Eh, yes." Ridley said nervously. Riza started to fall to the ground again, clutching her head. "What's wrong???"

"They are telling me........" gasped Riza, her head throbbing with pain. She curled herself into a tight ball and held onto her head. "........That some intruders are coming for us. The ones with the Jades tell me that they are going to help us out of here when the intruders come." More pain started to hit Riza's mind. "The intruders are.... are....are......EGH!"

"WHO ARE THEY?" cried Ridley in shock. 

"They are..........GALACTIC FEDERATION!!!" Riza shouted before she passed out on the floor. As Ridley stares down at Riza and feels her forehead, General Arvis, Kary and the Aeonese doctor, Lagua, came bursting into the room in distress.

"What happened now Ridley?" sighed Arvis, always feeling suspicious of Ridley. Kary elbowed Arvis and gave him a dirty look.

"I did not hurt her, I swear!" pled Ridley. "Riza is not feeling well." Dr. Lagua nodded his head and looked quite determined. He put his hand against Riza's burning forehead.

"Yes, she feels quite burning hot." Lagua said softly. "Definitely a fever. Did she act strange or something?"

"Yes doctor." replied Ridley, lifting the young woman into his arms. "She saw some horrible things happen to her." 

"GUYS COME ON!" a voice shouted. "The Galactic Federation is after us!"

"Where is Riza, and Ridley?" another voice shouted in distress.

"I hope they are okay. We got to help them out of here!" As Kary and Arvis cleared the way, great beings alongside the Aeonese guards, came bursting into the room where Ridley, Arvis, Kary, Lagua and Riza stayed. They all had a special Jade imbedded into a part of their body. One being looked extremely familiar to Ridley.

"Ss....s...SURLENT?" Ridley gasped. The being nodded his head.

"Yes, it is I. We are here to lead you all out!" As Surlent helped the Aeonese out of the room, Scion noticed Riza being unconscious and started to feel quite suspicious about the whole situation.

"Now how the hell did Riza become unconscious?" Scion asked. "Did you do something to her?"

"No, I didn't" Ridley responded. Dune and Surlent agreed with the Aeonese dragon.

"Scion, come on!" Dune laughed, nudging Scion.

"I think Riza is not feeling good." sighed Surlent, looking down at Riza in the great dragon's arms. "I could sense it inside her." 

Everyone on the Hana-Nim started to run(and fly) for their lives and warned a few others about the Galactic Federation's plans on hitting the Hana-Nim. Everyone started to get every tool, weapon and anything else that could help them defend themselves from the intruders. Everyone then saw a nearby place to find refuge. THE STORAGE ROOM!

"Come on everybody! We are almost there!" cried out Arvis as everyone started to frantically follow him. As everyone started to make their way to the Storage Room, they were surrounded by members of the Galactic federation.

"STOP RIGHT THERE!" Shouted the Chairman of the Galactic Federation. Surrounding the chairman, was some people from Planet Aeon, the descendants of the Chozo refugees on Planet Hatikva and to Ridley's nasty surprise........

SAMUS ARAN! IN NEW ARMOR!

"SAMUS! I knew you were the one that planned this!" Ridley shouted. Samus held her gun cannon up to Ridley's head.

"RIDLEY! LET THE GIRL GO." Samus commanded.

"We know of your crime Ridley." Azrael snarled. "Why did you capture that poor girl?"

"LISTEN!" Surlent shouted, stepping out of the crowd. Samus looked confused under her armor.

"What is it?" Samus asked.

"Ridley did NOT capture Riza. She decided to go along and help this creature, Ridley." Surlent pled. "Ridley has been through enough already. Riza is there to help him out and reform. "

"Yeah Samus." Kary responded. "He was once a criminal, but the days of Zebesian piracy is long gone!" 

"Really.....?" Samus responded. She then took the gun cannon away from Ridley's head and decided to listen to what everyone has to say. Suddenly, Riza started to slightly twitch around in Ridley's arms, her eyes slightly opening.

"Wha....what's happening?" yawned Riza as she started to gain consciousness. To her surprise, she saw Samus, Azrael and the others from the Galactic Federation surrounding them. This gotten Riza confused and rather provoked at the same time. "WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US!?"

"Young woman, we have came to save you from that horrible being!" Azrael told Riza.

"What did he do to you?" Samus asked in concern, stroking Riza's bright pink face.

"Nothing happened." moaned Riza. "I was NOT kidnapped. I want to help Ridley and his people. They need our help, please listen. If I was kidnapped, I could fight back and escape." 

"TRUTHFULLY! Did Ridley hurt you in any way?" Azrael asked again, looking concerned.

"NO! HE DID NOT!!!" shouted Riza in anger as she started to get in the position to attack. This now made Surlent, Scion, Dune, Ridley and his crew feel worried about the young woman. 

"Why are you doing this?" cried Samus as Riza started to approach the bounty hunter.

"LOOK! I want you to LEAVE ME, RIDLEY and MY FRIENDS, ALONE!" snarled Riza as she jumped into the air and flew. "If you don't, you will suffer the same fate as 'The Nothingness from Beyond' one fateful day!" Riza then started to shoot out beams of light at Samus and the Galactic Federation. 

"You wanna play rough, huh?" Samus chuckled as she pointed her gun cannon at Riza. No matter how much she tried to shoot at Riza, the young woman with the Jade would always quickly dodge all the lasers and bullets Samus and the Federation shot out at her. Being rather dismayed, Scion came into the scene, jumped into the air and fetched Riza.

"RIZA! STOP THIS AT ONCE!" shouted Scion as he slapped Riza across the face, making her snap out of her hysteria. Riza looked around and started to feel humiliated.

"So sorry everyone." whimpered Riza in pain. "We......must.......go........UGH!" 

"Riza, don't worry, all will be fine!" Ridley said as he approached Riza and Scion, both of them lending a helping hand to the dazed and confused Neo-Rudra. Surlent, Dune, Arvis, Kary and Dr. Lagua started to follow behind them, keeping a watchful eye on both their crew and Galactic Federation.

"Hey, humanoids, why are you going?" shouted the Chairman of the Galactic Federation, seeing Scion, Surlent and Dune leaving them. Three of the men looked back at the chairman.

"Leave us alone!" scolded Scion.

"We found our destiny right here." Surlent responded. The chairman turned crimson with rage.

"WE'LL SEE ABOUT THAT! COME BACK HERE OR I'LL..........."

"No use." sighed Samus. "They know what they wanted, they know their destiny. So let them be!" 

"But Samus, they are accompanying RIDLEY, the most infamous Space Raider EVER!" 

"No use chairman." Azrael softly said, rubbing the chairman's sore shoulders. "I think they will watch over Ridley just fine. Besides, there are no more Space Pirates and no more Mother Brain to help him out anymore, so he needs guidance from a force that seems much more civilized and less treacherous." the Chairman just stared at Azrael and Samus, feeling rather odd about the whole situation.

"Very well then." the Chairman sighed in disappointment. "We might as well go...." 

"GOD I HATE THIS JOB!"

As the Galactic Federation started to leave, the Aeonese and the ones chosen by the "Jade" had another thing on their hands. A new planet and new frontier was to approach all of them. The atmosphere was right for the beings, so they decided to safely land on this new frontier.

---

As the Galactic Federation left the Hana-Nim, the Chairman went into his own private room on the ship, throwing things around and kicking the walls.

"Damn, damn, DAAAAAAMN!" the Chairman shouted in rage as he torn things off his wall. "No, no, Ridley changed. Don't hurt him. Oh no, that girl from Dai-Chi was not captured, she just wants to help! GRRRRRR! I.....HATE.....MY.......JOB!!!" As the chairman blew his fit, chief officer Gulim-Che came into the room, feeling quite concerned.

"Are you okay Kilmer?" Gulim-Che asked, scratching his head. The chairman Kilmer just looked at the young Chozo, breathing heavily, sort of like hyper-ventilating.

"Those god damn humanoids idiots from Dai-Chi. Damn that Ridley! Are those humanoids so stupid or something?" Gulim-Che just looked at Kilmer blankly.

"Actually, about the humanoid race on Dai-Chi, they are very smart." Gulim-Che responded. "Four of them fought off the cycle of Rise and Downfall on their planet, remember the news?" 

"Then why are they believing everything that bastard Ridley tells them?" sneered chairman Kilmer. Gulim-Che just sighed and shook his head.

"You don't get it sir. I think Ridley changed his ways. Remember, Mother Bran and Zebes are no more. They have been gone for almost a decade now." Kilmer then dropped his head and gripped onto his bed.

"I know.......I know!" he sighed, sounding quite out of breath. "I *huff* still don't *gasp* believe Ridley. Sometime, I want something other than those crazy people from Dai-Chi to watch over them."

"But chairman, those people are really a race of Demi-Gods. They can handle it, honestly! Don't you......." Gulim-Che was suddenly cut off.

"I heard enough of this! I don't care if the humanoids are really the people that found Atlantis, Mu and Lemuria! I still want to send out some people to monitor them, since Azrael and Samus refused. I'll say it once and say it again Che, I STILL DON'T TRUST RIDLEY!"

"Very well....." Gulim-Che said as he left the room, leaving the chairman alone in his messy room and his sore feet.

While in the meantime, Samus started to feel tired, when suddenly, some virus bit her and traveled into her body. She started to rush to the restroom and felt really ill. Azrael, hearing her making agonizing noises in the restroom, started to fly out of his place of residence and decided to check up on the Bounty Hunter.

"Are you okay?" Azrael asked, knocking on the door. The toilet started to flush and Samus started to stagger out of the room, feeling quite nauseated, but still looked ambitious.

"Don't worry......Uhhhhh, I am fine." Samus slurred out. "I will be fine, I won't go! I will......" with those words, Samus passed out, clutching to her sore torso. Azrael started to lift up Samus and put her back into her bedroom.

"I think you need to rest up before going on anymore adventures." Azrael whispered as he put Samus into bed and got ready to leave the room, hoping for Samus to be safety.


	4. Under Pressure

****

Heart of a Dragon

By Karasuhato, the "Raven Dove"

(karasuhato@ecmail.i-p.com)

****

and 

Ultima Mayu

(mayu_roxx@hotmail.com)

****

---

The "Metroid" series is copyright of Nintendo co. ltd.

"Rudra no Hihou" (Rudra's Secret Treasure) is copyright of Squaresoft and Graphical Corporations CROWD inc.

****

---

Karasuhato's Key/Legend to story elementals:

= A character's thoughts

__

italics=character's point of view

CAPITAL LETTERS= character talking loudly

****

---

Under Pressure

---

Azrael and his assistant, Xibalba (Zei-bal-bah), heard Samus' alarm clock go off, but Samus did not awaken. The virus could have seriously infected her, so both of the Aeonese crew members decided to check up on the ill bounty hunter.

"Samus......." Azrael whispered, feeling great concern for the mighty space hunter. "Samus.......are you okay there?" As Xibalba turned Samus' alarm clock, Azrael decided to peel the moist covers off of Samus' pale face and lifted her head from the semi-dry puddle of vomit.

"Ugh! Oh dear....." sighed Azrael in disgust as he lifted Samus out of bed. Xibalba put his hand up to Samus' forehead, trying to avoid the vomit.

"Damn, she's burning!" Xibalba sighed. "DOCTOR REBINE! PLEASE COME, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY!!!"

As Xibalba shouted out as loud as he could, Doctor Laya Rebine came running into the room, having a semi-worried look on her face. She was from planet Tyr and was humanoid, but much more taller and had more muscle than Earth humans, making her a doctor to definitely rely on for strength and thinking.

"What happened?" asked Dr Rebine. Xibalba pointed out Samus lying unconscious and filthy in Azrael's arms.

"Samus apparently caught a nasty virus." Azrael responded, feeling nervous. "I hope you can PLEASE help." Dr. Rebine walked up to Azrael and observed Samus even closer.

"Oh dear, here, let me take care of this!" Dr. Rebine said as she took Samus from Azrael's arms and lifted Samus over her shoulder, and went to the bathroom near Samus' bed to give her a nice, warm bath and to check up on her. This started to make the three Galactic Federation members quite concerned.

"I hope Samus will feel better......" Azrael sighed telepathically to Xibalba. 

"Me too! Samus, please make it through this pain. PLEASE!"

****

---

On the savage planet of Ashura, the Hana-Nim landed in a spot far from the Galactic Federation. Inside this mother ship, Surlent was looking out the windows, taking notes on this odd planet.

"The planet looks quite young yet!" Surlent said in observation, taking notes. Surlent also pulled out his outdoors thermometer from his sack of belongings, observing the temperature. "WHOA! It is 88.6 degrees Fahrenheit outside." 

"Indeed." replied Dr. Lagua, observing Surlent's outdoor thermometer. Both Lagua and Surlent started to rub the moist fog off the windows, getting a clearer observation of the planet's environment. Birds flew around chirping, animals scurried around making noise and colourful bugs surrounded the ship. "Most of the planet is moist, tropical weather and plant life. How amazing." 

Riza was finally waking up from her sleep. She felt a little better than before, however, she still could not figure out the thing that made her snap into an hysterical fit that one day. After drawing her data in her journal, Riza put on her metallic kimono and head out of the room where she was staying at, getting ready for a new day to greet her.

"Riza-Chan!" Ridley called out. Riza turned around and smiled, waving back at him.

"Hey Ridley!" Riza said softly, hugging the fiery Aeonese dragon. "I'm glad to see that you are okay. I'm sorry for that one ruckus I caused on this ship a few days ago."

"Heh! That's long over with. Besides, the Galactic Federation won't bother us here on this planet. We are faw away from them now!"

"Ha ha, good!" Riza laughed. As Riza got ready to join her friends at breakfast, all feasting on some Adobo buns (Filipino styled braised pork in buns), Dr. Lagua started to approach Riza and her friends.

"Hey humanoid girl and friends." Dr. Lagua laughed. No one has ever seen the Aeonese doctor in such a hyper mood. Usually, he was quite calm and tranquil, hard to pull away from research. "Looks like you and your friends with the Jade don't need to wear your armor outside. The environment and weather is quite too nice for it!"

"Thank you for the reminder." Riza responded, finishing up her Adobo bun.

"Will we still need to bring our weapons and items outside, just in case we are exploring?" Scion asked the doctor.

"Sure, why not." Dr. Lagua responded. "It is a good idea, since we don't know what lurks in this immense jungle!" Dune also started to raise his hand high up in the air. 

"Or do we need to use Mantra as well?" 

"Yes. Anything to protect yourselves from danger is mandatory." Dr Lagua said calmly. Everyone got done with breakfast and got dressed, and also started to organized their inventory as well. Scion got dressed in only his jean cut offs, his wrist and ankle guards and put his patch over his eye socket where the Life Jade resides. Surlent wrapped a sarong-like garment around his body, making sure it would cover up his Jade as well, put some sandals on and grabbed out a flail-like spear that Surlent calls "The Swallow", because of it's speed on hitting monsters. Riza slipped out of her kimono and put on a two piece tube top and knee length tropical skirt, both pieces being an aqua blue-green colour and embodied with tropical flowers. She also grabbed out her yang elemental saber and put on some gloves from her clean and shiny armor, slipped on a pair of durable sandals and started to braid her long hair up, so she could keep it out of her face. Dune put on a pair of trousers, brought his gun and gun case with and gotten ready to head out with the others.

Luckily for Ridley though, he did not need weapons or armor, since he had quite strong reptilian hide and fire power to protect himself with. All five members headed out of the Hana-Nim, getting ready to explore some unknown territory.

"Remember everybody, be careful!" shouted Arvis as everyone started to leave, wishing them luck.

"And if anything is planning to be violent and hostile, fight it back!" Kary commanded. Everyone waved goodbye as they left for the jungle.

****

---

Samus Aran opened her eyes, seeing the blurry surroundings around her. Her eyes started to dilate, and then they stood still.

"Oh, ohhhh, what happened?" Samus got up, put on her robes and started to stagger her way out of her room. Before she knew it, Samus' eyesight became normal, if albeit perfect. Samus went into the dark bathroom to get something and saw everything there was. It was like she had an ability to see in the dark. The image of seeing in the dark started to flash on and off, but it was still enough for the bounty hunter to see. 

"Amazing." Samus thought to herself. "I could not see images in the dark before...." Samus continued to climb around her bathroom and make her way out of the bathroom and into her own room. As she got ready to lay down, she noticed something quite particular about this whole situation.

"Ack! What am I doing on the ceiling?" As Samus tried to get herself down, Gulim-Che, Xibalba, Azrael and Laya Rebine come into her room, looking quite astounded at what they saw.

"Samus? WHAT ARE YOU DOING ON THE CEILING?" cried out Gulim-Che, looking pre-paired to faint. Samus started to blush a bright hot red pepper colour.

"Eh? Uhhhh....well, I did not mean to get up here! I found myself staring in the dark and then, I found myself up here? What's going on?" 

As Gulim-Che and Dr. Laya Rebine helped Samus on getting down from the ceiling, they noticed something odd that happened to her body.

"Your hands........AND feet!!!" the doctor gasped as she observed Samus' hands and feet, being much smaller than her own. "Why, they seem to be rather clammy and sticky. How odd."

"WHA.....?" Samus shrieked, feeling quite dumbfounded. "I never realized that. I just blacked out and found myself running around in the dark and on walls and ceilings." Gulim-Che just stood, nodding his bird-like head in observation.

"That is the reason why you were climbing those walls and ceilings, and seeing in the dark as well." Gulim-Che observed. "The virus gave you those abilities." 

Suddenly, the intercom turned on and so did the emergency sirens.

"THIS IS NOT A DRILL!!!" Everyone on the ship started to look alarmed.

"AN UNKNOWN FORCE IS ATTACKING OUR GALACTIC FEDERATION COLONY! EVERY SOLDIER, PRE-PAIR FOR BATTLE!!!" 

"Come on Samus, we have no time to lose!" cried out Azreal and Xibalba in panic, as the two Aeonese dragons of the federation started to make way into their battle ships. Samus headed to her closet, got on her armor with no problems, and headed to her battle ship, flying into space, pre-pairing to fight for her life and lives on the others on the GF Colonial ship. As Samus saw what she was getting ready to fight, she became completely petrified with utter terror. More terror than the Mother Brain or Queen Metroid put together. It looked like foggy, ethereal mist, except, that there were two, evil eyes staring from the mist, as well as an orb that violently glowed. It was now known that Samus' nightmare has came true........

..........THE NOTHINGNESS FROM BEYOND HAS FINALLY CAME!

"D....damn. It is like my worst thoughts are finally coming true..." Samus thought to herself. Samus and the other soldiers of the Galactic Federation started to attack this strange and horrible entity. This seemed to be the first time ever that Samus was not on a one-woman mission. With help, the entity may go away.

However, this task was easier said than done. The Nothingness from Beyond was a lot more powerful than the soldiers thought. As they attacked, it countered attacked with burning light, meteor and comet fragments, spewing strange, slimy life forms onto ships and to top this all off, it used a vacuum effect to even suck some battle ships into it's vortex, never to be seen again. But Samus was not one to give in so easily. The battle hardened warrior knew better than to give in to such a force.

Just as they thought they were safe, the Chairman, Gulim Che and other officials and civilians noticed something odd coming into their ships. From the twisted vortex, came mutations that crept from battle ships and made their was into the GF colony armada. No matter how hard some people fought, the mutations engulfed then in a few gulps and were being ripped from limb to limb. Now it was time to take some serious action.

"Gulim Che, Dr. Rebine, slip into your uniforms and get out the poisonous "Bio-Gas", while I make an announcement for evacuation!"

"Yes sir." Chairman Kilmer's two assistants said as they got into their suits and gathered up the Bio-Gas. Kilmer grabbed the intercom microphone to give an announcement.

"EVERYONE, THIS IS CHAIRMAN ION KILMER! EVERYONE EVACUATE TO THE LOWER LEVELS OF THE GALACTIC FEDERATION COLONY ARMADA! WE ARE GOING TO GAS THE UPPER LEVELS TO GET RID OF THESE STRANGE MONSTROSITIES!"

With that emergency announcement, the civilians donned fire-proof uniforms, helmets and gas mask, with a well oxygen supply along the side, and all evacuated to the lower levels of the great ship. With everyone finally gone, Kilmer, Gulim-Che, Rebine and other officials were well equipped and ready to gas these strange mutated beasts.

"This better damn well work." Chairman Kilmer thought to himself as he and the others released the Bio Gas, hitting every mutated being. "I could only hope......"

****

--- 

Back on Planet Ashura, Surlent, Scion, Riza, Dune and Ridley have found a good place to camp out at. Somewhere that is not too damp, nor too dry, just right for storing things at. Near their yurt shelter (yurt is a huge tent that wanderers and nomads use), they had a good food supply by their side. Fruits and Vegetables in cooler containers and meat from hunted animals in salt skins to keep them preserved. There was also spare clothing for the humanoids, as well as a tarp to put over the yurt in case of rainy days and Radio contact supplies to help the travelers keep in touch with the Hana-Nim. At night, Dune and Scion had problems trying to sleep, they simply were not tired. So the two men headed out of the yurt for a bit and do some star gazing.

"Ah yeah, this is such a nice, calm night." Dune sighed in relief, staring into the pristine, star covered sky.

"You are telling me." Scion responded. "Heh, heh, and no damn street lights to interfere with it all." But right as the two men were observing closer at things in the sky, a humongous mass of red light started to spread out, covering the stars and making strange whistling noises.

"What the hell? WHAT IS THAT?" Dune screeched, jumping from his spot. Ridley, Surlent and Riza got abruptly awakened by the eerie whistling noises, feeling quite irritable, as well as annoyed by the noises and glowing.

"UGH! Can't you see we are......" The trio's dialogue was totally cut off by the strange noise that got louder and glowing that became more brilliant that before. Ridley all of the sudden started to feel quite queasy inside.

"Aaaa....AAAAAAH! It hurts, IT HURTS." Ridley wailed. All of the sudden, there was a loud thump that was heard from a good distance. Ridley started to feel even more stranger than ever. His eyes really widened up, his mind blanking out, and also, to top it off, received strange signals. He felt his mind drift away slowly.

"They want me. They want me back." Ridley said blankly, as he started to wander from everyone as if he were sleep walking. Riza and Surlent approached Ridley, trying to cut off the signal.

"Ridley, no, don't listen to those strange signals!" cried Riza, as she shook the great space dragon.

"It is all a trap." Surlent gasped. "They are using you Ridley!" Ridley then started to storm away from them in rage.

"NO!" Ridley screamed in anger. "I MUST COME FOR THEM! I MUST!!!" 

"Ridley, please, no!" Riza cried out, but Ridley stormed out of the scene, trying to fly as fast as possible. As Ridley started to fly away, Dune, with all of his speed, eventually caught up to Ridley.

"Ridley, listen." Dune shouted at the max of his breath. "STOP THIS AT ONCE! THEY ARE USING YOU. YOU HAVE LOST ALL OF YOUR SENSES! FIGHT THAT EVIL URGE." Ridley then, grabbed the treasure hunter and with all of his might, flung him into some tree branches.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO! SHUT UP." Ridley growled. "Don't worry everybody, I'm coming." As Dune slowly made his way down the trees, Ridley kept flying faster, catching up to where the strange signal was coming from, deep in the jungle. To Ridley's surprise, it was some of the Zebesians raiders that Ridley thought have died on Zebes, just before the Nothingness of Beyond ate the planet up.

"Come closer....." the lead Zebesian said calmly.

"Uh, uh huh. I shall." Ridley stuttered blankly. "You guys survived Zebes?" As Ridley finished talking, the creatures started to strike out at him in violent anger. "Hey....! What was that for?"

"WHY DID YOU BETRAY US, YOU SON OF A BITCH?" the lead Zebesian shouted as tendrils came from it's pincer and wrapped around Ridley's neck. 

"You left us, just so we could be devoured by the powerful vortex called 'the Nothingness of Beyond'. Now, we are horribly mutated and miserable, ALL THANKS TO YOU RIDLEY." another Zebesian replied.

"I did not mean to doom you all to die." Ridley cried out in pain, while two out of six of the mutated Zebesians started to pummel him up. "I thought Samus killed you all after the fall of Mother Brain and the Nothingness. Honestly, I did not know at all." 

"Uh huh, sure....That is what ALL traitors say! HA HA HA HAH HA HAH!!!" the third Zebesian cackled as it spat venomous saliva in Ridley's dragonian face. Luckily thought, Ridley knew when to shut his eyes.

"You betray us? Then, YOU DIE!!! KYO HO HO HO HO HO!!!" another Zebesian laughed bitterly as it and a couple other Zebesians lifted Ridley with all of their might and threw him up against a huge, gnarled tree.

"No, no, NO! You guys betrayed me, you are the ones that need to die." Ridley snarled as he started to breathe out a big fire bouquet to scorch all six of the mutated Zebesians. Then, he struck the twisted beings, breaking off some of the exoskeletons of the beings. However, as Ridley struck out and scorched some of the Zebesians, the leader had an idea of it's own.

"Bastard. You'll pay!" the lead Zebesian sneered as he grabbed Ridley by the neck. "I'll rip your head off."

"GRAAAAAH! NO YOU WON'T! YOU WILL DIE!!!" Ridley screeched. "YOU WILL DIE, YOU WILL DIE, YOU WILL DIE!" Ridley's angry voice was so loud, that every bird from every tree and bush started to fly away in great fear. The yelling was so loud, it even woke up all the Jade warriors back at the camp site.

"Oh dear." Riza sighed nervously.

"What is wrong Riza?" Surlent asked calmly. Everyone in the yurt looked at Riza, feeling worried.

"I can sense it. Ridley is in great danger. He has been tricked and is being hurt!" With the words that came from the frightened young woman, Surlent, Scion and Dune started to get all their stuff together.

"Well, then, COME ON EVERYONE! WE HAVE NO TIME TO LOSE!" Scion commanded as everyone came well equipped and followed the trail of the distressed Aeonese space dragon. Everyone brandished their weapons, showing that they were not a force to be messed with. The jade warriors stormed through the jungle as fast as a Cyclone. Finally, the warriors found a group of strange, twisted mutations and an injured Ridley moaning in pain and agony.

"Ridley, are you okay?" Riza asked, kneeling down to the dragon. "Here, let me help you." As Riza set a hand on Ridley's wounded spots, she clensed the wounds and closed them back up, stopping the bleeding and infections from reaching his body.

"Oh, thank you Riza." Ridley moaned. "I'm sorry I did not listen to you before. I feel so bad. I just can't believe it, my former Zebesian crew turning against me. I think this Nothingness of Beyond is warping everything it swallows. Please destroy the traitors."

"Very well." Riza smiled and winked, pulling out her crystalline saber. 

It was now four against six. Even though the Zebesian Mutants were slightly mangled, they still did not give up and would even fight to the finish. Scion turned into his massive, beast-like warrior god form and started to hack up two of the Zebesians into gory little pieces. Dune became his deity form as well and became so speedy, that he could confuse all of the mutated beasts and wear them out by making them pursue him. As the beings became confused and light headed, Surlent sucked out some of their energy and absorbed it into his own body. Riza, being the kindly and sacrificing soul that she was, not only attacked the Zebesians, she served herself as a flesh and blood shield for Ridley. She had enough of the mutations hurting ones that did not deserve it. Suddenly, Dune, while trying to shoot down the lead Zebesian, got stuck in the claw/tendrils of the twisted being.

"Wa-Ka-Pou!" Dune shouted. From his gun, there were fiery magma bullets that shot out at the leader and all six of the other Zebesian mutants, burning through their shells. All six of the creatures were destroyed, only leaving the doom leader to beg on it's knees. 

"How dare you do this to us!" The leader sobbed. "Why didn't the nothingness eat you instead of us?" Scion walked up to the leader, towering over him, and staring down at the pitiful being, pointing his mighty "Apocalypse Sword" at him.

"Because, we are the ones destined to fight this Nothingness." Scion laughed. "Now, DIE!" Scion's fast blade flew down on the leader, chopping it's head off.

"Come on now, we need to all go back to our shelter." Surlent commanded everyone as he and the other Jade Warriors helped Ridley back to the shelter. Surlent, the leader of the Jade warriors, had to think of more plans of what to do on the planet. Ridley was wounded and somebody had to watch over him. ""Okay everybody, before we head back to the Hana-Nim, somebody has to stay with Ridley and help him."

"I'll do that." Riza responded softly as she wrapped her arms around Ridley's chest.

"Thank you Riza." Ridley sighed.

"Okay Riza. I could tell you two have taken quite a liking to each other. Hee hee hee." Surlent chuckled. "Well, me, Scion and Dune have to go back to the Hana-Nim. I got Dune communicating with the General of the Hana-Nim right now to let him and his crew know."

"Okay." Riza said, getting up and patting Surlent on the back. "Good luck."

"Hope things turn out." Ridley softly replied.

"Take care guys." Surlent and the guys said before leaving. Hours later, as Riza was observing the spots where Ridley's wounds used to be, a bright lavender glow emitted from his chest.

"AAAAAAAACK! What's going on here?" Ridley shrieked in total bemusement. Then, Riza's Holy Jade started to glow as well. "I think....there is a connection here. What is it?"

As Riza looked closer at Ridley's chest, she found quite an amazing and unusual surprise to await both of them.

"Ridley." Riza gasped. "You have...........THE YIN JADE!!!"

"What? I have a jade within me? Just like you guys?" Ridley asked.

"Yes. Indeed. You are chosen to help save life in the galaxy."

"Really?" Ridley thought. "Why me though? The higher beings are aware that I did some naughty things in the past, and now they want me to....help?"

"Yes." Riza replied. "All is forgiven. Now, we must go to bed, I'm tired."

"Me too Riza, me too." Ridley responded as Riza slipped under the sleeping bags with the Aeonese Dragon, cuddling with him and comforting him from anything that could go wrong.

As Riza and Ridley drifted off to sleep, Riza started to hear the voice of Meifa.

"Riza, Riza......"

"Uh, yes?" Riza asked groggily. 

"This is Meifa. So Ridley has the Yin Jade, which is also known as the Dark Jade, right?"

"Yes, that is right." Riza said calmly to the former holy savior.

"Since you have the Yang Jade, which is also known as the Holy Jade, it was said a long time ago in an ancient Danan legend that one day, when darkness and holiness and when yin and yang re-unite together, unity will approach, and all shall be in balance and harmony. No evil force could withstand the power of the combined elements of Dark, Light, Birth, Life, Death and Re-birth."

"Really? Then, how did Ridley get the jade Meifa?"

"You gave it to him Riza."  
  
"ME?" gasped Riza. "How did I do that?"

"It was your caring for the being and the thoughts of ones you have cared about that gave him the Jade. When the Zebesian mutants turned against him, when Mother Brain was destroyed and when Ridley had no where to go, he sees you as his savior. Now, with the two thoughts meet, you blessed him with the Jade, so the former Space Pirate could now do heroic deeds, and help the ones chosen by the Jade to save every thing in the galaxy from being manipulated or being toyed with."

"Thank you Meifa." Riza said.

"Take care Riza. Please, make us, the ancient god warriors, proud." 


	5. A Familiar Face

****

Heart of a Dragon

By Karasuhato, the "Raven Dove"

(karasuhato@ecmail.i-p.com)

****

and 

Ultima Mayu

(mayu_roxx@hotmail.com)

****

---

The "Metroid" series is copyright of Nintendo co. ltd.

"Rudra no Hihou" (Rudra's Secret Treasure) is copyright of Squaresoft and Graphical Corporations CROWD inc.

****

---

Karasuhato's Key/Legend to story elementals:

= A character's thoughts

__

italics=character's point of view

CAPITAL LETTERS= character talking loudly

****

---

A Familiar Face

---

Surlent, Scion and Dune finally made their way from the jungle to the Hana-Nim mother ship, ready to talk to the captain, general and other Aeonese officials about some plans and what to do when Ridley recovers.

"So, Arvis, is it true that Ridley gotten injured by some strange mutations that fell from the sky deep in the jungle?" Zolton, captain of the Aeonese Dragon mother ship asked Arvis.

"Yes, it is true." General Arvis replies. "Riza, the young woman that carries the 'Holy Jade', is taking care him as we speak." Before everyone knew it, Scion's Life Jade, Dune's Death Jade and Surlent's Re-Birth Jade started to glow in unison.

"Eep! Our Jades." Scion whispered. "Why are they glowing?"

"I don't know, let's go to somewhere private though." Surlent whispered back to the burly young man. Captain Zoltan noticed something was going on with the young men from Dai-Chi.

"Anything wrong humans?" 

"Uhhhh.......nothing." Surlent shrieked nervously, turning his back and hiding his jade on his left shoulder. "Excuse me for a bit. Errr....I have to go to the restroom."

"Okay, Go a head then." replied the Captain. Surlent started to tap Scion and Dune on their shoulders, getting them to follow his lead. 

"Come guys, this is serious!" Surlent whispered as he dragged Scion and Dune by his side to the restroom.

"What the hell is going on here Surlent?" Scion asked, feeling quite a bit of discomfort.

"I have a strange feeling about this........." Dune murmured nervously. "It's like some strange presence has followed us here." Surlent and Scion also started to feel the strange presence as well.

"Shhhhhhh......listen. I can sense it all." Surlent whispered as quietly as he could, placing his index finger over his lips. As the three young men basked in silence, the spirits of the Ancient deities came through from Gaff in the netherworld, with an important message to deliver to the group.

"A fifth Rudra has come to join you all on your journey to stop the Nothingness of Beyond." Mitora's voice calmly said to everyone. "The carrier of the Jade is a non-human male. He is possibly the first non-humanoid being to ever successfully carry a sacred Jade."

"Really?" asked Dune.

"Yes, but it is no ordinary Jade, it is the long lost Yin Jade!" Everyone's eyes widened and faces turned pale.

"THE YIN JADE?" All three of the warriors exclaimed. It was said a long time ago, that the deity that carried the Yin jade, was devoured by the Nothingness of Beyond's vortex, alongside the deity, was the Yin Jade. The impossible has became possible.

"Yes, THAT Yin Jade." Houzhen's voice responded. "Never knew someone would find it. I thought it was to be gone forever."

"Really Houzhen......?" Surlent wondered.

"Indeed, yes." Saizou's voice replies. "Varuna, keeper of the Yin Jade and the deity of darkness, was sadly devoured by the Nothingness of Beyond in the beginning of time. Alongside her, when being devoured into that great vortex, was the Yin Jade. Varuna was never seen again after that."

"Then, how did the Yin Jade appear?" Surlent asked. Suddenly, Surlent started to feel a cold spot coming out from his body, as if a soul from him was escaping. The presence of Mitora, Houzhen and Saizou were now back at Gaff.

"Surlent, my son, I have to tell you something important." A familiar voice pled from the mist. Surlent's eyes widened and started to look around the room, after hearing that strangely familiar voice.

"Gommorah, is that you?" Surlent asked somberly.

"Yes Surlent, it is I." Surlent started to pant in surprise, thinking about the former lord of the Netherworld and Gaff. "You seem so anxious Surlent, but why?"

"Errrrr....you died.....for me?" Surlent panted. "But why?"

"Yes I did, Surlent. In fact, before my death by Scion and his friends on that one fateful day, I decided to transplant my soul within you body, alongside your very own soul. I really want you to hold the advantages that I have never gotten to have. Hope of the living lies upon you."

"Yes, I understand." Surlent said somberly.

"Well, my son, I decided to give up my own will to live, so I could break away from the orders Houzhen gave to me, and also the fact that I could not bare to see nothing but darkness, death and disaster that the cycle of Rise and Downfall brought onto souls of the planet. I hope for you to not only care for the humanoid race in general, but for every living being and world in need of a heroic helping hand."

"Okay Gommorah, this is for you. I shall re-unite all five major jades together and bring peace and unity to everybody."

"Not just for me Surlent, for your friends and for the needy." As Gommorah soul vanished within Surlent, Kary all of the sudden started to beat on the restroom door.

"Hey! You guys okay in there?" Kary shouts impatiently. 

"Yeah, were fine." Dune replies in a calm, cool and collective manner.

"Good, I need to go, AND SOON!" 

"YES MA'AM!" The guys started to leave the restroom and cleared the way for the second in command dragon to do her business. 

"Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!" Kary says frantically. As the men made their way through the hallways, they were all greeted by Captain Zoltan, General Arvis and Dr. Lagua.

"Humans, I've noticed your Jades glowing earlier. Why were they doing that?" Captain Zoltan asked the carriers of the Jade. Dr. Lagua gotten out his research notes and shown them to the Captain.

"Captain, it was said that when the Jades were to glow simultaneously, a message or important signal was to be delivered to the ones that carry the sacred Jade stones."

"How interesting." replied Captain Zoltan. Surlent stepped out and decided to tell the head Aeonese everything.

"Okay, let me explain everything here." Surlent briefly stopped to clear his throat. "It has been said that the long lost 'Yin Jade' has been re-discovered and inherited by someone on this planet." Everyone, especially Dr. Lagua, were quite astounded to hear such news.

"Is that true, the YIN JADE?" Lagua cried out in sheer anticipation. 

"Yes, it is true." Scion calmly responds. Kary comes out of the restroom, feeling refreshed, when she noticed the whole group getting into a discussion of some sort.

"What is this all about?"

"Kary, you are not going to believe this, but....." Dr. Lagua took a deep breath. "......The Yin Jade, which was said to be lost forever, has been inherited and founded by someone on this planet here!" Kary's jaw dropped in disbelief.

"REALLY? I never would have known." Kary spoke loudly, being bewildered about the news.

"Well, we need to search for this person, and SOON." Kary looked quite consent at the captain's orders, and agreed to help out Scion, Surlent and Dune on finding this person.

"Heh heh, cool, now we are onto something." Kary said smugly. "Come on guys, let's roll!" 

So Surlent, Scion, Dune, Kary and Dr. Lagua all set out on their journey to find the one whom carries the Yin Jade. Little did they know that the dangers on the planet were not eliminated, even after the nothingness spewed out mutations. As the travelers went deeper and deeper into the Rain Forests, they all came across some shrunken humanoid heads on pikes and some evil looking, reptilian idols. 

"I have a bad feeling about this....." Dune mumbled in discomfort as he saw all the gruesome imagery in the rainforest.

"What does this all mean?" Surlent wondered in observation. As Dr. Lagua cleared the bushes for everyone, some rough looking Reptilian warriors turned to face the party, brandishing their weaponry. They were all being led by a tall, burly reptilian chief, whom worn some garments and bandanas, which appeared to be made from human skins, covering his dull mahogany coloured scales. His startling yellow and green eyes stared down coldly at the humanoids with the Aeonese crew.

"HALT!!!" The Reptilian chief shouted. "What reptilian beings shall cross through the zone of the Ryu-clan with mangy Mammalian?" This made Scion, Surlent and Dune quite disgusted with their cold, biased behaviors.  
  
"We travel with the Aeonese." Surlent explained to the chief. "We just came by too......."

"SHUT UP! It is the Aeonese we talk to, not you." sneers the bitter chief. "Now, Aeonese reptilians, why do you come here?"

"We have come here to search for the person whom carries the long lost 'Yin Jade'." explains Kary. This only made the chief of the Ryu-clan feel even more disgusted. 

"Hmph, probably yet another stupid mammal. BIG DEAL!" the chief sighed. "We, the reptilians, have never been rewarded by the higher beings with such treasures." As the chief stepped away for a bit, everyone noticed that the Ryu-clan were holding hostages in wicker cages, guarding them like how flies stick to toffee

"Any mammal that comes into our territory, shall become our slaves, or DIE!" One of the Ryu clan guards warned. "We use their meat for food, and we use their hides as our garments."

"And they have nothing to say about all of this?!" Dune protested. The Ryu-clan cheif turned to them again, with a wicked smile covering his reptilian face.

"Well, for now, we stuffed their mouths with some mouth guards that we have made, to silence them. Later, we would either remove their tongues or their voice boxes. Mammals keep talking and never shut up." With those cold-hearted words, Scion pulled out his sacred sword and was now boiling crimson with rage.

"You asshole! Why do you do such barbaric things?" Scion snarled, gritting his teeth and getting in the position to attack. This only made the Ryu-clan's chief intrigued.

"Oh ho, so the mammal is getting smart with me?" cackles the chief, pulling out his gigantic scimitar. "I wonder how you shall fair against me, cheif KAZETEN!" Scion came closer to the cold hearted chief.

"Very well. We shall duel." Scion replied. "However, I am no normal humanoid. OBSERVE!" Scion's life jade started to glow and he became his horned, warrior Rudra form. He was just as tall and burly as Chief Kazeten, which made things even for the both of them.

"Wow.....that man. He is a NEO-RUDRA!" gasped one of the clan guards. "Are you crazy chief?"

"Keep out of this!" replies Chief Kazeten. "Now, we shall start to....FIGHT! Pre-pair for death, human scum!" Chief Kazeten took out his scimitar, while Scion held up his Apocalypse blade, the two clashing together. Kazeten went first and took a great big lunge at Scion, shoving him into some bushes. As Scion was on the ground, he outstretched his legs, wrapped them around Kazeten's ankles, and made the great chief fall to the ground.

"RIP HIS FLESH GREAT CHIEF!" cheered one of the Ryu-clan people.Both Chief Kazeten and Scion started to cast Strength Mantra to themselves and got off the ground, swords still in tact. The warriors started to violently lunge at each other, scratching up Scion's divine armor and ripping pieces of Kazeten's garments.

"TEAR THAT BASTARD APART!" another tribe member screeched. Scion lifted Kazeten off the ground, and slammed him into a tree. Then, Kazeten grabbed Scion by the neckpiece of his armor and with the tip of his scimitar, flipped Scion up in the air, landing on some shrubs. Scion approached Kazeten from behind and hit him on the back of the head with the blunt side of his sword, causing him to spit up blood.

"KILL HIM! KILL HIM!!!" the Ryu-clan cheers in unison. Both Kazeten and Scion were face to face, out of breath and giving each other a cold, angry stare. Perspiration poured from their bodies like dew drops forming on plant life in the morning.

"Now, THIS is for the hostages!" Scion screamed out loud, pulling out his sword again, slammed it into the earth, and caused a shockwave to go in the direction where Kazeten stood, bringing him to his knees, his scimitar broken. 

"You did it Scion! You defeated the chief!" cheered Scion's companions. The travelers and hostages cheered Scion, while the Ryu-clan felt dismayed and deeply ashamed. It was the first time ever, that any mammalian being would defeat their chief.

"NOOOOOOO! THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!" Chief Kazeten cries out in shame of defeat. "Human, do me a favor. Please, KILL ME!" Scion walked over to the chief, his sword upraised.

"Okay then....I shall....." Scion says sternly to the chief, raising his sword higher and higher, ready to impale. 

"Come on mammal, what the hell are you waiting for? KILL ME AND GET IT OVER WITH!"

".....I will......" Scion's blade started to lower on the being, but then, other thoughts crossed Scion's mind. "GRAAAH, I can't do it! I just can't!" Scion just slammed the blade back down onto the ground.

"Why do you spare me?" pled the chief. Scion looked back at Chief Kazeten, smiling.

"I decided to spare you, because your clan would be lost if they had no one to lead them."

"Grah! But being defeated by a MAMMAL!" groaned Kazeten, burying his hands in his face. "What a great shame in the history of my clan." Surlent, Dune, Kary and Dr. Lagua approached the chief, with some questions to ask, and some suggestions to make.

"Say, how did your kind appear here in the first place?" asks Dr. Lagua, pulling out his favorite notepad. Kazeten looks up at the tall, blue-green dragon and slightly nods.

"Well, we were once from a planet called 'Dai-Chi', land of the Rudras, the 'Great Soil'. The day before mass destruction hit our world, the Ryu clan's ancestors were taught the techniques of transportation building by some surviving Danans and Water Sprites. So we build ourselves some colonial space ships and left our planet. But as we escaped, later, a strange plasma ray struck some of the colonial space ships, and that is how we arrived here, on Planet Ashura."

"Now, what do you see against Mammalian beings?" Surlent asked sternly, approaching cheif Kazeten.

"Well....." Kazeton sighs, feeling slightly exhausted. "....Seems like the higher beings of our old world, preferred other beings to us, especially humanoids. That is why we have a grudge against mammals and captured them for our own sources." The chief pauses, closing his eyes. "But since I was the first chief ever to be defeated by a mammal, I will do what you all tell me to do."

"Well......" Scion pondered for a bit, looking around the surrounding environment. His eye was fixed on the imprisoned hostages in the wicker cages, feeling uncomfortable, miserable and cramped. "All I want is for those people to be freed from their cages."

"Yes sir." the tribes responded, opening up the cages and taking the people out from where they have been imprisoned. Scion and the rest of his companions untied the hostages and removed the mouth guards.

"YAY! WE ARE FREED! THANK YOU!" the freed hostage travelers cheered as they went back to where they have originally came. However, one man, who looked around to be in his late forties, early fifties, felt quite curious and approached Scion and the gang, kneeling to them.  


"Thank you for saving everybody." The man said calmly to everyone. "My name is Jilde. I am an archaeologist from Dai-Chi. From the jades on your bodies, I can see you guys are from their, right?"

"Yes." Scion, Surlent and Dune responded in unison. "And you?"

"I have not been there for years. The last time I was there, I was imprisoned by Emperor of the Sacred Precinct for some crime I did not even commit. On the day of execution, some human-like creatures helped me escape from jail and took me far away from that planet." Jilde then looks down at his locket, looking at a picture of a red haired woman of what appeared to be of Danan descent. "I'm sorry for leaving you dear beloved Aqua......I never gotten to see our child!"

"It's okay." Surlent says, patting Jilde on the shoulder and observing the picture of the woman. She was a good woman. "

"Say, if you want Jilde, would you like to some with us, to search for the one with the Yin Jade?" asked Kary. Jilde looks up and is quite happy to take the invitation.

"Sure! I'll be happy to. I have no where else to go." Jilde responds happily.

"Welcome aboard!" Kary greeted as they all headed out of the Ryu clan's territory and continued onwards on their mission. The clan however, just stood there, being quite astounded and muddled at the same time.

"I can't believe this." Kazeten said to himself and the others. "I guess mammals are smarter than we all assumed. That's is quite strange."

****

--- 

It was days since the Galactic Federation officials gassed down the mutations that came from the Nothingness of Beyond. The mutated bodies were being preserved in formaldehyde, and were being used specifically for scientific purposes. It has been days since the Nothingness of Beyond has appeared, but it was still a good idea to run drills and have the soldiers to practice their fighting techniques.

Samus Aran came back to the Galactic Federation colonial ship, to rest up from her last fighting drill for the day. She went back to her sector of the ship, took off her armor, slipped into her pajamas and reclined back on her bed, feeling quite exhausted. 

"What a day." Samus sighed, looking through her collection of Entertainment magazines from different worlds. It was her hobby whenever she was not battling out in space. This time, however, Samus had some thoughts that distracted her throughout the remainder of the day. The thoughts of the Nothingness of Beyond and Ridley's "change of personality" have plagued Samus' mind for hour on in. She also started to have thoughts about the people on Rudra's world, wondering about their well-beings. 

"This is indeed one of the most unusual missions ever." Samus yawned. "Just one thing after another. Just keeps going on and on." As Samus' mind started to drift, Xibalba calmly came into the room, checking up on the exhausted space hunter.

"You okay Samus?" Xibalba asks calmly. Samus started to look up at the black Aeonese dragon, smiling weakly.

"Don't worry, I'll be okay." yawns Samus.

"Okay, I'm glad to hear that. You probably need to get some rest, it has been quite a long day." As Samus' weariness touched her, Xibalba left her alone to sleep. As Xibalba closed the door to Samus' part of the ship, he was face to face with a mysterious woman with slivery-blue hair, magenta eyes, pale skin, and to Xibalba's surprise, she wore the red, orange and yellow armor that Samus would always used to wear. Xibalba felt quite stunned as he saw the woman.

"Who.....who are you?" asks Xibalba. The woman looked him in the eyes and started to laugh maniacally.

"Oh ho, that is for ME to know, and YOU to find out! Ho ho ho ho!" The woman put on her crimson helmet and dashed out from Xibalba's sight as quickly as possible.

"What did that woman want?" Xibalba wondered, feeling rather bemused by her appearance. "Why would she even be here to begin with? I got to tell Azrael and everybody, and SOON!"

****

---

Back at the camp on Ashura, seemed like to both Riza and Ridley that they were being more close to each other and the ties between them binding more, since Ridley has received the Yin Jade. Even though Riza loved him before and vice versa, seemed like Ridley would have to play a more important role, now that he is a chosen one.

"How are you feeling today Ridley?" Riza asked, caressing the area of the chest where the Jade was imbedded at. Ridley placed his hands on Riza's, feeling her soft, warm palms.

"I'm starting to feel much better, all because of you." Ridley crooned softly, staring into the woman's innocent eyes.

"So, how do you feel about inheriting the Yin Jade?" Riza asks softly.

"I feel okay, just a little groggy and light headed, that's all." Ridley replies, eyeing Riza's jade and his own Jade. Then he noticed Riza getting up, looking off into the distance. "What's wrong Riza?"

"Oh, I'm just worried about the others." sighed Riza. "I hope they will make it safely."

"Same here Riza, same here. If they don't make it, then how are we to fight the Nothingness of Beyond and re-unite the elements of the Jades together?"

"That's what I wonder too." Riza responds. "Then what are we to do?"

Meanwhile, back in the swampy regions of the rain forests, Surlent and the others were struggling to get out of the swamp, when suddenly, Surlent's Re-Birth jade started to glow and sparkle.

"Ahhhh.....I'm receiving something.....!" screeched Surlent as he fell to the soggy ground. Jilde ran up to Surlent, noticing his strange behavior.

"What's wrong Surlent? Are you okay?" Jilde asked as he helped out Surlent. Surlent started to brush off the much on his sarong, and faced all of his companions. 

"Wait, guys, I KNOW WHERE THE YIN JADE IS!!!" Surlent cried out. "FOLLOW ME!" As everyone started to follow Surlent, Kary and Dr. Lagua had some plans that could help out everyone in the swamplands.

"Hey, we have some better plans." Kary shouted. Her and Dr. Lagua used their great strength to tear down a nice, sturdy tree and thrown it in the swamp water. Scion, Surlent, Dune, and Jilde climbed up onto the huge log and held tightly. Then, Dr. Lagua and Kary each grabbed one end and held tightly, flying with the log and humanoid comrades in their super strong arms. "Now, we are off to search for the one with the Yin Jade!"

"THEY ARE SAFE AND ALIVE!" Ridley cried out, his Yin Jade glowing brilliantly. After his Jade started to glow, Riza's Jade also started to glow as well.

"Ah yes, there are coming back for us." Riza said to herself and Ridley. "There are alright after all."

As Riza and Ridley awaited for the others, Kary and Dr. Lagua were flying with Surlent, Scion, Dune and Jilde, all clutching onto the log. 

"Hey, hey! There's the campsite!" Surlent said out loud. "We stayed in that yurt!" 

"Okay!" The fire was still lit at the campsite. Both Riza and Ridley heard the voice of their friends talking about the Yin Jade and where they could find it. But, there was one voice that neither Riza, nor Ridley, could recognize. As they heard the log thump loud, they jumped up and saw the silhouettes of their party from inside their yurt. Surlent unzipped the huge door and slipped in, feeling relieved.

"How have you guys been since we were gone for days?" Surlent asked, climbing into the yurt.

"I'm okay." Ridley replied calmly.

"I am fine too." Riza added. "Except, I'm trying to give my healing abilities of the Holy Rudra a break for a while, since I've been doing all of that for the last few days." As Ridley, Riza and Surlent were conversing and the others entered the yurt, Ridley's Yin Jade started to give off a brilliant, lavender glow. All the returning companions seemed to be quite astounded by such a sight.

:Ridley, it's YOU that inherited the YIN JADE!" Surlent shouted in great enthusiasm. "How amazing." Ridley started to blush hard, being almost a deep purple colour.

"Uh, huh. I did not mean to run into the Jade." Ridley said nervously. "It was the Jade that has chosen me."

"No no Ridley, I find it fascinating to find out the fact that you are THE very first non-humanoid to inherit the powers of the five major jades!" Dr. Lagua replies.

"Plus, that Jade you inherited, was thought to be long lost, until now." Jilde added. Both Ridley's eyes and Riza's eyes widened up, seeing the man that they did not recognize. 

"Say, who are you?" Ridley asks. "I have never seen YOU before."

"Oh me? Oh ho, I am Professor Jilde. I am also from the same planet that Surlent, Scion and Dune are from." Jilde responded.

"Nice to meet you Jilde." Ridley said, bowing his head. "What brings you here?"

"Hello!" Riza boasted cheerfully. Jilde smiles and waves to the girl, but as he looked closer, he saw that she was also from Dai-Chi and carries the legendary "Holy Jade".

"Oh wow, you have.....THE HOLY JADE!" Jilde cried out, feeling slightly flabbergasted. "Were you born with that young lady?"

"Yes." Riza says, smiling.

"Amazing! There has been rare cases of virgin births and children being born with Sacred Jade Stones!" Jilde gotten so excited, that he accidentally drops his locket, the picture of the woman opening up right in front of Riza.

"Who.....WHO'S THAT!" Riza yelled in surprise, noticing the woman's picture in the locket. "I swear I've seen her before!" Jilde slowly hands his locket to Riza and has everyone face him.

"Say, I have to tell everyone the full story behind some of my mementos I keep along side me." Professor Jilde explained. "Say young lady with the Jade, whom might you be."

"Oh me, I am Riza, the One Who Cleanses the worlds."

"Lovely name indeed. I am Professor Jilde." Riza pointed to the picture of the woman inside the locket. "The woman, her name is Aqua."

"Yes. I knew her once." sighed Riza. "She was a good woman before she perished."

"Yes, she was a wonderful woman." Jilde grins. "She is my wife." Riza's eyes widened and put her left hand on her face. "She is also the daughter of the Danan sage and prophet, Zekou. We spent a lot of time together, even before we were married. Even after marriage, we would not separate. But it started with one fateful day......"

"Fateful day?" Ridley asked, feeling that this was not a good thing in his past. Jilde continued to explain after clearing his throat.

"It started with the day we excavated a lifelike statue of Meifa in the radioactive ruins of Gommorah. It then started to deliver me a secret message, a message that would forever change my life."

"Interesting...." sighs Surlent.

"Then, one of our archaeologists, turned to criminal activity, and would started to vandalize and steal things from ruins of the non-humans, and even assaulting the people whom were descendants of the ancestors whom lived in the ruins years ago, whom would protest about the criminal behavior. Then, that jerk started to blame all of his actions on me, and I was framed for crimes I did not commit."

"How horrible." Kary responds in shock.

"Yes indeed. Despite the objections of Aqua and Zekou, the Emperor of the sacred precincts would still not listen and had his soldiers drag me into the brig, and later, they would have had me executed. Before that day of execution, my wife Aqua gave me that locket, so I would never forget her." Then, Jilde paused and pulled out a small replica statue of Meifa that was carved from Turquoise stone. "And her father, Zekou, gave me this small, turquoise statue of Meifa, like it was a good luck charm." Then he handed the statuette to Riza.

"It's beautiful." Riza said, holding the statuette and letting her friends see the little Meifa statue.

"Well, a day just before execution, a humanoid group of people that also happened to be wrongfully accused of crimes, started to help me out of prison, by bending the bars and sneaking past sleeping convicts as quietly, yet quickly as possible. So, as a sigh of gratitude and appreciation, I decided to go on their journey to freedom and headed into the spaceship of unknown origin. Unfortunately, my wife was getting ready to have a baby, and I never gotten to see her nor my child she was to give birth to, ever again. I feel so ashamed of it all." Riza walked up to Jilde and hugged him.

"Jilde, no need to be ashamed." Riza says softly. "Because, Zekou is my grandfather and Aqua, was my MOTHER!" Jilde slightly jumped in shock.

"You....Riza? You are my daughter!" Jilde gasped. "Riza, my daughter. The sacred child born with the jade! I never knew it would be you. I have heard the prophecies of the Danans telling me about a child being born with a Jade and saving the planet, but never guessed it would be my own daughter!" Everyone in the room was shocked, stunned and quite pale.

"I thought you were dead!" cried Surlent. "That is, what the late Myun-Hi told me anyways."

"Same here." Ridley gasped. "I'm glad to see Riza's dad survive!"

"Papa, papa...." Riza said quietly, breaking out into tears, crying. "OH PAPA! I'M SO HAPPY TO SEE YOU!" Riza ran up to Jilde, hugging and crying hard.

"Oh Riza dear, it's okay now. From now on, I shall assist the Aeonese, you, and the one with the Jades. I shall be here, alive and well." Jilded sobbed, hugging his daughter. Everyone in the yurt was quite touched by this whole scene.

"I'm so happy for Riza." Dune said quietly.

"Only if the others knew back at home." Scion added. Then Jilded looked at his daughter and the ones that carried the Jade. "Is Dai-Chi okay? I hope the cycle of Rise and Downfall did not turn things around."

"No, the cycle has long been depleted." replied Surlent. "Also, it was your daughter that cleansed the world of pollution and poison air."

"Plus, she re-united all five races to join the cause of fighting that treacherous cycle." adds Dune.

"Oh Riza, my daughter, I am SO proud of you!" Jilde said softly.

"Oh, I'm just proud to know that you are alive papa." Riza replied. The estranged daughter and father re-united for the first time ever in their lives.

"Well, it's been a long day today, and I think we should all rest." Jilde sighed, each person heading to his/her section of the huge yurt. But little were they known that they were being stalked by the same mysterious woman whom appeared on the Galactic Federation ships.

"Heh heh, wait until my master nothingness hears about this!"? The woman was gleefully thinking, watching her prey like a Jaguar. "Now, there are five with the Jades. Heh, but I still bet they could not handle my all powerful master! HA HA HA HA!"

  
  



	6. Doppelganger

****

Heart of a Dragon

By Karasuhato, the "Raven Dove"

(karasuhato@ecmail.i-p.com)

****

and 

Ultima Mayu

(mayu_roxx@hotmail.com)

****

---

The "Metroid" series is copyright of Nintendo co. ltd.

"Rudra no Hihou" (Rudra's Secret Treasure) is copyright of Squaresoft and Graphical Corporations CROWD inc.

****

---

Karasuhato's Key/Legend to story elementals:

= A character's thoughts

__

italics=character's point of view

CAPITAL LETTERS= character talking loudly

****

---

Doppelganger

---

Ridley found himself in a cold, dark world. He could not see where he was going or where he was heading to. He could not turn back either. What was this place? Why was Ridley here to begin with? Suddenly, from the black "sky", a red-violet light fell and landed right in front of Ridley.

"Yaaaah! What is the meaning of this?" Ridley snarled as he started to get ready to battle the light. But as he got near it, it started to take on a form of a mysterious woman, whom was dressed in a golden kimono, with a onyx cloak over the outfit and her head, complete with pearly white rims around the edges. Her blue violet braids hung out, totally contrasting with her pale skin. Her lips were bright blue and she had two red spots on her forehead, above her thin blue-violet eyebrows. From the looks of things, this woman was apparently of a life form higher than Ridley's race, or any race for that matter. So Ridley started to slightly back off and bow to the woman.

"Greetings, dear Ridley." The woman said softly, opening her pale blue eyes. "I am Varuna, one of the five heroic deities." Ridley noticed her blank stare and dilating pupils. Apparently, Varuna was a blind goddess.

"Ah, how did you know my name?" Ridley asked Varuna. "Besides, how did you know that I was here?"

"Well, even though I am a blind goddess, I can sense your warm, living presence here besides me, opposed to the cool presence of a deceased soul." Varuna explains as she felt Ridley's warm body. "And besides, the young heiress of Meifa told me to hand down the Yin Jade to you Ridley."

"But why me, out of every other living being in the galaxy?" Ridley asked, feeling a tad unsure of himself. "All I am good at is slaying lesser beings."

"Oh Ridley, please, don't doubt yourself like that!" cried Varuna, kissing Ridley in the tip of his beak. "You are strong willed and powerful. You were just repressed for many years, that's all. Besides that, you have inherited my sacred treasure and my abilities!"

"Really?" Ridley screeched out, feeling slightly anxious. "That is the same thing that the others with the Jades told me!"

"Yes." replies Varuna, nodding to the Aeonese Dragon. "Now, let me tell you about the 'Legend of the Jades', and show you how everything happened."

"Okay." Ridley said calmly. Varuna struck the ground and a bunch of light blue mist and the mist started to form an image. The image showed five ancient warriors and a misty being with evil eyes and swirling vortex in the center.

__

This all began on the "Day of Destiny". It was five of us versus one omnipresent being, the Nothingness of Beyond. All five of us fought as hard as we could, using every special power and technique to try and rid of the horrible being. The whole worlds have depended on us, and we would never turn back.

Just before the destruction of this being of Nothingness, Houzhen, Meifa, Mitora and Saizou were starting to weaken and were dying. I was the only one left feeling healthy and robust. So I, Varuna, chose the destiny of offering myself as a sacrifice to the Nothingness of Beyond, so my friends could be saved. Unfortunately though, I was unaware that the Yin Jade was with me while being sacrificed, so confusion and disorder would take place in the galaxy. It was only four out of five jades that stood the test of time.

Now the picture cuts to five of the major Jades and the heirs of the heroic deities.

Now that all five major Jade elements are re-united, you and the others could be the bringers of peace and prosperity in the galaxy. 

"How amazing. So that is my destiny!" Ridley sighed in awe. "Don't worry, I won't fail you, dear Varuna!" Varuna started to have other thoughts go through her mind.

"Are Houzhen, Meifa, Mitora and Saizou all right?" Varuna asked, feeling concerned for her estranged friends. It was many epochs since she has seen any of them. She was trapped in the Nothingness' realm the whole time, struggling to get out and see the light. Now, her dream was to come true.  
  
"Yes. They are fine." Ridley responds. "They reside at the palace Gaff in the Netherworld." Varuna started to smile and feel hope after all.

"Oh, thank you very much Ridley! I shall meet them there. I bet they have missed me for so long!" with those final words, Varuna started to dematerialize within the Yin Jade imbedded in Ridley's chest.

"Don't worry Varuna. Don't worry sacred heroes, I won't fail you now!" 

****

---

Out in the voids of space, the Nothingness of Beyond was dormant and resting up from all the chaos it created. A slightly rusted up looking space ship flew towards it, trying to wake it up by nudging around in it's mists.

"Master Nothingness......MASTER NOTHINGNESS....." a feminine voice from the ship shouts out. The misty being opens it's eyes, looking at the pale, fiery armor clad woman coming out from her ship.

"What is it, specimen AR905?" the Nothingness asked in a raspy, wicked voice.

"On Planet Ashura, near the same solar system of Dai-Chi, there are some warriors that inherited the Jade on that planet." AR905 urgently announced. "They must be the heirs of the ancient ones that defeated us eons ago!" The Nothingness' wicked eyes were wide opened, hearing the news.

"Oh ho, we'll see about that!" The Nothingness cackled. "AR905, check out that one shipped that attacked me and my creations. Pretend you are working for them, but then, lead them to Planet Ashura, were we shall get even with the divine ones and return all to the beginning of time! Understand?"

"Yes Master. Indeed I do." AR905 smiled as she headed back to her ship, heading to the Galactic Federation vessels.

Meanwhile, back on the main GF vessel, Xibalba tried to convince everyone on the strange sighting he saw one night, only to get mixed opinions from people.

"But, I SWEAR, I DID see a different looking woman dressed in the armor that Samus Aran used to wear!" Xibalba pled to the group of disbelievers in the break-room, only to have a reply of laughs.

"Yeah right, Xibby! You were fantasizing of such a woman in bed last nights. Nya ha ha ha ha ha!" one of the soldiers taunted, thumbing his nose.

"Oh, I just think you have a 'crush' on Samus, huh?" another soldier taunted back to Xibalba. 

"I DO NOT!" Xibalba shouted in frustration. "I like Samus, but not in that kind of way." As Xibalba was trying to deal with the immature soldiers, Azrael came into the break-room to see what the big fuss was about.

"Why is everybody causing a big commotion in here?" Azrael asked everyone. Xibalba ran up to his friend and decided to tell him.

"Oh, just dealing with some immature idiots here." Xibalba groaned. The soldiers still continued to laugh on about it.

"Xibby loves Samus, and he wants her to have his........"

"Guys, GROW UP! Just grow up, please! I swear, you all act like a bunch of punk high schoolers sometimes." Azrael shouted in humiliation. All the soldiers backed off and were quite quiet. Both Azrael and Xibalba left the break-room. "Now, what is it you wanted to say?"

"Remember what I talked about last night? Y'know, the Samus doppelganger?"

"Oh YES, now I remember." Azrael clears his throat. "I did not see her, but I saw a ship that resembled Samus' old ship that she would pilot in space. Just to make sure, I checked Samus' room and....."

"......And?" Xibalba interrupted anxiously.

".......Well, Samus was just laying down, resting up from a busy day." exclaims Azrael, looking slightly stunned. "I believe you Xibalba. Honestly, I do."

"Thank you Azrael." Xibalba smiled back and decided to fly around with Azrael for a bit to kill some time. Out in space, Samus Aran started to explore various parts of the galaxy, looking for new bounties to hunt, and to look for new worlds to explore. It was a nice, clear day out in space, nothing threatening could be seen.

"Wow, I'm shocked that there is nothing extremely hazardous out today." Samus was thinking as she looked out at the stars and planets from the window of her ship. But obviously, no where is really safe, since Samus was unknowingly being stalked by quite a familiar ship. 

"Heh heh, this ship must be apart of the Galactic Federation ship that attacked my master." specimen AR905 chuckled in her mind. "This is so SWEEEET!" Then she started to ram Samus' ship around, shocking the unsuspecting bounty hunter.

"ACK, What NOW?" Samus shouted, feeling her ship shake back and forth. As the shaking stopped, Samus saw a familiar ship fly right passed her. "What the hell? Did that X virus I once had, make a ........DOPPELGANGER? Must be the works of the Nothingness of Beyond."

Now, Samus was involved in a "Dog & Cat" type of pursuit with her doppelganger, AR905. With all of her light speed, Samus tried to ram the clone's ship back and forth, also aiming weapons at her as well.

"Oh fuck! That wench won't leave me alone!" AR905 thought nervously as she tried to escape Samus' ramming and shooting. As the Samus started to charge up her ship and pre-pair to super-ram the clone ship, AR905 started to speed away as fast as she could, leaving a path of green mist in Samus' path, fogging up her windows.

"Oh great!" Samus groaned. "The doppelganger fought better than I thought." As Samus tried to follow the clone ship, she felt her own ship disfunctioning. So she started to turn on some radio communication devices to contact chairman Kilmer and the crew.

"EVERYONE, THIS IS SAMUS ARAN. MY SHIP IS STARTING TO DYSFUNCTION ON ME, SO I HAVE TO MAKE AN EMERGENCY LANDING ON A PLANET IN THE NEARBY DAI-CHI SOLAR SYSTEM." This started to make all the staff and civilians feel quite shocked and concerned for Samus, hoping that she could survive the emergency landing.

"SAMUS, THIS IS CHAIRMAN KILMER. WHICH PLANET IS IN YOUR SITE?"

"WELL....." Samus replied nervously. "IT IS THE THIRD PLANET FROM THE SUN, PLANET ASH......" right there, the transmition started to pick up major static before going out. 

"Oh dear, this is horrible." cried chairman Kilmer.

"Now, what are we to do?" Gulim-Che added, feeling like a quivering mass of nerves. Azrael and Xibalba then started to have plans.

"Well, we are going to search for Samus and help her out!" Azrael cried out. Dr. Rebine caught up to him and tried to hold him and Xibalba back.

"But guys, it's too dangerous!" pled Dr. Rebine. "Please don't go!"

"Sorry Miss Rebine, but if we all sit here and wait, who knows what could all attack us." Xibalba replied, him and Azrael breaking free from the giantess' grasp. "Samus Aran has been our only hope for these many years." Xibalba and Azrael flew out the room at to the exit, beginning their search for Samus. Gulim-Che also started to feel concerned as well.

"I don't like the looks of this." Gulim-Che thought as he opened the door. Suddenly, the Samus doppelganger swung into the room, looking like she was going to aim her arm-cannon at everybody. "SAMUS!!!"

"I am NOT the one your call 'Samus Aran'. I am....." AR905 had to think up of a name for herself, and fast.

"If you are not Samus, then who are you?" Dr. Rebine asked. AR905 took off her helmet, brushing the glacier coloured hair out of her face.

"I am HAYLEY KAZHAN. I have something important to tell everyone."

"What is it then, Hayley." Chairman Kilmer asked. He felt quite suspicious about the woman. Her piercing eyes felt like it was going to turn his bowels to liquid. She was that intense looking.

"On the Planet Ashura, there are five terrible creatures that plan to destroy us all."

"Well, where is planet Ashura?" Chairman Kilmer asks nervously, trying to hold up his weak smile. 'Hayley' walks up to the chairman and points out to the right with her arm cannon.

"It is in the South-East direction of the galaxy, in the Dai-Chi solar system." Hayley responds sternly. "It might take a while, but if we keep going south and south east of here, we are destined to make it there. Dai-Chi is the fourth planet to the sun, while Ashura is the third to the sun." Everyone in the room looked suspicious about what Hayley wanted out of them.

"I don't trust this crazy woman." Chairman thought to himself. "I have a feeling she is going to use us at her advantage....."

****

---

Back on Planet Ashura, the travelers of the Hana-Nim started to feel quite exhausted from their busy weeks on the planet. Newcomer Jilde was just plain happy to be rescued from being sacrificed and also more than happy to meet his estranged daughter.

"Anybody need to bathe?" Kary asked everyone as she and Dr. Lagua shed their dead reptilian skin and hopped into the hot springs that the travelers used as their "natural bath tub". All the humanoids, Scion, Surlent, Riza, Dune and Jilde started to take off their clothing and join in with the Aeonese Dragons. It was like being at home (or at least back on the Hana-Nim mother ship), bathing in a ryokan bathtub with family and friends. It was nice for everyone to clean up and warm up in the nice hot spring water. 

"This is so nice....." Surlent said in relief, as he and the other started to get cleansed in the spring's water. As they were getting to relax some more, a huge crash was heard throughout the jungle, vending some vibrating waves as far as where they we bathing.

"The hell was that!" Ridley shrieked, jumping up from the water. Riza stood up as well and was pre-paired to leave.

"Well, I'm going to investigate that!" Riza said in determination. She started to glow softly and became her Rudra form, flying out from the hot springs in a frenzy.

"RIZA, GET BACK HERE! YOU CAN GET HURT!" Ridley shouted out. Surlent beckoned Ridley to sit down for a bit.

"It's okay Ridley, let her go for a bit." Surlent replies calmly.

"But what if it's......."

"RIDLEY! If Riza could sense danger, she'll warn us." Kary cut off, trying to get Ridley to calm down. 

Riza flew throughout the woods, searching for the source of that loud booming crash. The shockwaves seemed to be so powerful, that it knocked over some trees and bushes in the woods, suddenly, Riza notices a fire is beginning to happen.

"KINGUKOSUTO!!!" Riza chanted. She sent out a big wave of water to spread out through the Rainforests, putting out the fire. As she started to make her way through the smoke, she saw an armored figure and her slightly damaged ship. Riza started to back off slightly. "ACK! It's you again!"

"You.....you are that young lady I ran into on the Hana-Nim, with RIDLEY!!!" Samus stuttered nervously, having to unexpectedly run into Riza, AGAIN. 

"I did not mean to attack you, but please, under any circumstances, do NOT attack me, nor my friends, or something will indeed happen." Riza warned Samus. 

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you." Samus said as calmly as she could. "I've noticed the strange behavior of the chairman on the GF ship. He does not believe a word me or my acquaintances say." Suddenly, Ridley came into the scene, catching up to Riza.

"Anything wrong Riza?" Ridley asked, but then started to stare at Samus at the same time. "You, Samus? AGAIN? If you are planning to attack me once more, I'm NOT up to it! OKAY?"

"Listen Ridley." Samus yelled, slapping him across the face. "I am not here to pick fights. I have came here, because my ship started to dysfunction. Oh, and another thing......"   
  
"RIZA.....RIDLEY....." Surlent shouted, looking for the couple in the woods. There, where there was some faint smoke, he found Riza, Ridley and Samus conversing with each other. Surlent started to feel a bit surprised to see Samus there. All he hopes for, is that she won't be angry with him, Scion and Dune for leaving the GF.

"Ah, I know you ma'am!" Surlent said nervously. "You were that bounty hunter that worked for the Galactic Federation. So sorry to leave you guys behind. It is just that......" Samus walked up to Surlent, putting her hand on his bare shoulder.

"It's okay. You had every right to leave the Galactic Federation." Samus replied, smiling underneath all that armor. Surlent's eyes widdened, he did not expect Samus to take this like that so well and maturely. 

"REALLY?" gasps Surlent. "I thought you'd be angry at us for doing something like that. Besides, why are you here?" 

"Well, not only have I made an emergency landing on this planet, but I have came to warn you about a clone of mine that is willing to attack this planet." Samus explained to everyone. Ridley, Riza and Surlent started to turn pale.

"We'd better this to everyone!" Ridley cried out, heading back to the hot springs. As he, Surlent, Riza and Samus started to head back, Scion, Dune, Jilde, Kary and Dr. Lagua started to get out of the springs and dry off. "Guys.....GUYS!!!"

"What is it Ridley?" Jilde asked. 

"Something is going to attack the planet!" Ridley shouted out loud. "We must contact the Aeonese Hana-Nim mother ship, AT ONCE!" Dr Lagua turned on the transmitter to contact Captain Zoltan, General Arvis, and the others back on the Hana-Nim.

"EMERGENCY!!! THIS IS DR. LAGUA! PLEASE , AT ONCE, COME TO THE CAMP-SPOT AND PICK US UP! ANYTIME NOW, WE ARE GOING TO BE UNDER ATTACK! OVER."

"Oh great, we better get going." General Arvis said nervously to Captain Zoltan.

"EVERYONE, HOLD ON! We are going to take off!" Captain Zolton warned everyone on the ship as it took off as fast as it could through the Rain Forests. As everybody was getting their food, clothing, camping supplies and other tools together, Samus Aran started to notice something quite odd about Ridley.

"Ehhhh.... Ridley? What's that on your chest?" Samus asked, looking closer at him. Suddenly, the Yin Jade flashed so bright, that it sent Samus flying in one direction. "Ahhhh.......it's a JADE!!! RIDLEY HAS A JADE!!!"

"Yeah, so what Samus." groaned Ridley. "You can't have it, because I inherited it."

"Well, DUH RIDLEY!" Samus replied sarcastically as she gotten her ship parts together. 

"Need help Samus?" Dune asked, offering her some ship parts. Samus took some of the parts that Dune handed out to her.

"Thanks Dune." Samus said, observing the pieces and putting them together. "I see you also fix some of the pieces too."

"Yes indeed." Dune winked. "I've worked with arks and flying ships before. That's why I know all of this."

"Amazing." Samus was cleaning off her ship and fixing parts together, when suddenly, some lasers started to shoot down from the sky.

"What the hell is going on?" cried out Jilde. "Is someone trying to attack us?" Samus looked up at the sky and saw more lasers shooting down, splitting trees in half. Feeling panicked, she tried to get her engine to work after Dune filled it with more fuel tanks.

"Come on ship.....PLEASE! Come on, WORK!" Samus thought to herself anxiously. The Engine kept struggling to start though. "Oh GOD! Please don't dysfunction on me NOW!" Suddenly, Samus' ship started up and started to glide around for a bit. Even though the ship could drive around properly, but I could not take off into the atmosphere. The Aeonese, Surlent, Scion, Dune, Riza, and Jilde had to think of something, and fast!

"COME ON EVERYONE! THERE IS NO TIME TO LOSE!" cried Surlent, grabbing some of the supplies and started to dash for life. Surlent then became his crystalline Rudra form and started to levitate "FOLLOW ME!"

All the Jade warriors became their Rudra forms and the Aeonese started to fly for their lives. Jilde, though a part of this Human Demi-God race, was nearly old and not as agile as the Rudras, so Riza had to carry her father on her back, flying alongside the others. "Riza, are you okay?" 

Riza looked right next to her and saw a new looking Ridley. He was a deep maroon colour, nearly black. His amber eyes were more piercing than ever, his claws longer, his body more muscular and now, he had FOUR sets of wings and a razor tail. "Ridley, is that really you?"

"Yes Riza, it is my Rudra form." Ridley replies. "How do you like it?" Riza smiled.

"You look rather tough now. I like it." Riza laughed. Ridley smiled back at Riza and her father.

"You okay old man?" Ridley asked Jilde, looking quite weary.

"Don't worry, I will be. But I'll be more happier when this madness stops." Jilde replies in a tired tone of voice. As everyone started to flee the lasers, following Samus' ship, the Hana-Nim suddenly appeared, with General Arvis coming out from top of the ship.

"Come on guys, hop in!" Arvis shouted, beckoning everyone to hop into the mother ship. So, everyone hopped onto the ship's top and slipped through the top entrance way. Finally, at last, everyone was inside the ship, setting down the camping supplies. Surlent then looked out the window and saw Samus' ship struggling to fly.

"What about Samus?" Surlent asked in concern. Arvis looks out the window and looks quite concerned again, seeing another person struggling to get out of the planet under siege.

"Oh dear, looks like we have to get some towing device to help that ship." Arvis responds, rushing back to the captain's headquarters.

"Good luck Arvis!" Ridley shouts. "Be careful, that person is very un-predictable."

"RIDLEY!!!" Dune shouts, elbowing Ridley. "Enough with the grudges."

"Yeah Ridley, I think Samus knows about the whole situation by now." Scion adds. In the meantime, Arvis and Captain Zoltan were working out some of the towing devices, getting them to attach to Samus' ship and avoid the falling lasers.

"Come on, please, please work." Captain Zoltan whispers. The devices already attached themselves nice and firmly to Samus' ship, taking it with them.

"YAY! It's a success!" cries out General Arvis. More devices attach themselves around Samus' ship, now to the point where the ship will never fall from it's clutches. Samus also started to feel relief as well.

"Well, I guess the Aeonese are a lot more grateful than I thought." Samus was thinking to herself, feeling relief. Suddenly, the radio in the ship turns on.

"SAMUS, THIS IS CAPTAIN ZOLTAN! DO NOT BE ALARMED, WE ARE GOING TO DRAG YOUR SHIP INTO THE SHIP LOT WITHIN OUR GREAT MOTHERSHIP!" Samus took off her helmet and started to wipe her forehead, as the ship made it's way into the Hana-Nim.

"I guess I am in their debt." Samus says to herself. Now, it is known that everyone has a great battle on their hands. But the greatest concern were the people on the Galactic Federation armadas, which are now being controlled by Samus' doppelganger, AR905 (aka. Hayley). They were now hostages of her and the Nothingness' beings. Any wrong step on the GF, would result in a horrible, horrible fate.

. 


	7. TARGET: Hayley Kazhan specimen AR905

****

Heart of a Dragon

By Karasuhato, the "Raven Dove"

(karasuhato@ecmail.i-p.com)

****

and 

Ultima Mayu

(mayu_roxx@hotmail.com)

****

---

The "Metroid" series is copyright of Nintendo co. ltd.

"Rudra no Hihou" (Rudra's Secret Treasure) is copyright of Squaresoft and Graphical Corporations CROWD inc.

****

---

Karasuhato's Key/Legend to story elementals:

= A character's thoughts

__

italics=character's point of view

CAPITAL LETTERS= character talking loudly

****

---

TARGET: Hayley Kazhan (specimen AR905)

---

In only a few days, the Galactic Federation ships are now under control by the Naster Nothingness' beings that everyone thought have died from being gassed down that one day. The creatures have regained consciousness after doctors and scientists tried to experiment on them, only to be horribly maim, or ever worse yet, dead. Like the typical cockroach, the off-springs of the Nothingness were much more difficult to deplete of than most people would have ever thought. Gulim-Che ran up to specimen AR905 (Hayley Kazhan) and tried to reason with her.

"Why do you want to attack Planet Ashura?" Gulim-Che asks, running up to Hayley. "If there were wicked beings, many other people on different worlds would hear about it! How come no one has except us?" Hayley shoved over the young chozo and gave him a nasty look.

"SILENCE YOU! These creatures are out for us all, they will destroy us!" Everyone looked quite disgusted at the crazy woman, wondering what she was talking about.

"Mabye, those creatures are out after the Nothingness of Beyond." Dr. Rebine added. Hayley starts to eye everybody with her cold, mad eyes.

"LISTEN! We are on peace terms here." shouts Hayley. Chairman Kilmer looked curiously at her for a bit, wondering what these "Peace Terms" were.

"What are these 'Peace Terms' that you talk about?" Kilmer asks.

"Well, you do as we say, everyone on the GF will live in peace and we will spare returning the worlds to what they once were a long time ago......" explains Hayley.

"But if we don't do as commanded though?" Gulim-Che asks nervously. Hayley starts to have a wicked grin on her face.

"......Then, you will die and everything will be returned to barren nothingness! All worlds will start all over again! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!" Everyone started to back off nervously, looking pale and uptight.

"Y.......yes ma'am!" Chairman Kilmer stuttered, backing off from the strange woman. Hayley kept on laughing cruelly, looking at everyone in the chairman's office.

"Good, good! I'm glad you gave in, dear chairman! OH HO HO HO HO HO!!!"

****

---

At last, the mother ship 'Hana-Nim', finally escaped from Planet Ashura and the rain of lasers that came from the ship above the planet. However, everyone had to think straight, since they could be under attack at anytime of the day. So after Samus' ship was 100% repaired, General Arvis and Kary requested her to go take the secret side entrance on the Galactic Federation, going undercover for the Aeonese crew.

Meanwhile, inside Captain Zoltan's office, the captain himself and Professor Jilde were going over some plans for Surlent, Scion, Riza, Dune and Ridley, whom are now in their Rudra forms.

"Okay everybody, listen up." Captain Zoltan announced. "In order for us to make it onto the main GF vessel, we have to send all five of you out there at once. However, take the side entrance, not the main entrance, because it is an easier way for the beings not to detect you guys coming onto the vessel. Got that?"

"Yes sir!" Everyone saluted in unison.

"Good! I also found a couple of now ex-Galactic Federation members that can help you guys out on navigating through the main vessel." Right besides Captain Zoltan and Jilde, were to everyone's surprise, Azrael and Xibalba, some of the few Aeonese dragons that have worked for the GF.

"Hello, I am Azrael." greets the silver being. "And next to me is Xibalba, my companion."

"Hello, we shall be your guides on this mission here." the black being adds. "Remember, when we get to the huge colonial ship, do not get separated from each other and do not give in to any of the force, okay?"

"Alright!" Everyone saluted as the guides and the warriors started to leave. Xibalba and Azrael were the guides, Surlent and Ridley were the ones in charge and following them were Scion, Riza and Dune. Jilde started to approach his daughter for a little bit.

"Riza......" Jilde said calmly. 

"Yes....." Riza said as she smiled at her father. Both of them started to hug each other, knowing that this is indeed an urgent mission and that she won't be back for a while.

"Good luck dear." 

"Thank you." Riza replies. "Please take care!" 

All five of the warriors and their guides made their way out of the ship and started to fly off to their main destination, the main GF colonial vessel.

****

---

It was hours since Samus Aran made her way onto the main GF vessel. The mighty space hunter shut off all the alarms or any devices that made loud noise, since the beings of Nothingness were attracted to loud noise. Samus shot, stabbed, blasted and dashed right through all of the strange mutations that raided the ship, reducing them to nothing but shredded up carcasses. Samus seemed to be more powerful, since Dr. Rebine gave her the vaccine to rid of the virus within her body. 

As Samus started to clear one room after another, she noticed some civilians being tied up together with some sort of metal rope.

"Are the monsters gone?" some of the young hostages asked.

"Oh Samus, OH SAMUS! You are here after all!" cheered the older hostages. "Please free us!"

"Sure thing!" Samus replies, as she brings out a laser blade from her arm cannon. "Freedom shall be in reach here!" Samus sliced up the metal ropes and was being careful on not cutting some one on accident. Before everyone knew it, everyone was freed.

"THANK YOU SAMUS!!!" The hostages cheered. Samus waved back and hoped for the freed hostages to find safety. Now it was time to Samus to moved on, and had to tackle on her main target:

THE SAMUS CLONE SPECIMEN AR905!!!

**---**

Finally, Surlent, Scion, Riza, Dune, Ridley, Xibalba and Azrael made their way through the ship. The warriors did as they said and followed Xibalba, and Azrael through the corridors. However, this was only the beginning for what problems the party were going to face. 

"Come on, as long as everyone hangs in there, we could all make it." Azrael said, trying to watch over the warriors and he and Xibalba led the way. As Azrael and Xibalba turned their backs for a bit, leaving to do their business briefly, the warriors started to feel some pain throbbing inside their heads, and collapsed on the floor at the same time. Their jades also started to flash violently like strobe lights.

"AAAAAAAAACK! NO, NO, I HATE THIS PLACE!" Ridley shouted at the top of his lungs in pain. All the warriors started to bundle up to each other, and embraced as hard as they could.

"It hurts, it hurts, IT HURTS!" cried Riza in pain, putting her hand to the jade on her forehead. Suddenly, all five of the warriors started to feel an evil presence around them. First target: RIDLEY!!!

"Ridley, remember this place?" the evil voice said to Ridley. 

"Shut up! Leave me alone." Ridley whispered to the voice.  
  
"That's right, I will leave you alone, but on one condition. Start slaying anyone on this ship whom is a part of the Galactic Federation. Complete Mother Brain's work and the work of the late Zebesian raiders! GYA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" With this, some flashbacks of Ridley's space raider days came to mind, as well as the raiding on the late Ceres colony and capturing the young Metroid to satisfy Mother Brain's purposes. As Ridley thought about it, it was like he was being treated like he were a robot and not like a living being.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!" Ridley screeched. The presence made it's way from Ridley to Surlent, their leader.

"Surlent, oh Surlent....." the voice taunted. "You are such a horrible leader. How could humanoids or any other living being rely on you? Remember when you doomed everyone you loved to die, such as Myun-Hi and your surrogate father, SORON! They died because of you." Surlent also started to have flashbacks as well. The day where Lazm "killed" him by tearing his chest open, inserting the "Re-Birth" jade into Surlent's left shoulder. Then, finding out the news that an evil entity named Clugan took Surlent's body away from him and went on a major killing spree, devouring souls of the living. Amongst these souls were Soron, the wise man of Mt. Torle.

"I'm sorry....I'm sorry...." Surlent whimpered to himself as the throbbing in his head gotten stronger and stronger. He clutched onto the crystal that was embedded inside his torso, pain reaching inside there as well. Scion also started to feel a wave of madness within him as well.

"Oh Scion, guess what? Everyone you once trusted turned against you! They are planning to kill you and take your Life Jade away from your body." The voice told Scion. "Protect yourself from those infidels." Scion just calmly nodded his head silently, as the dreaded presence made it's way inside Riza.

"Riza, though you were born out of chastity, you are still an unwanted birth, nothing more than a mere accident!" The voice told Riza loudly. "Everyone just wants to use you. No one loves you, you have no friends! HA HA HA HA HA!!! Remember your mother, Aqua?"

"What about my mother?" Riza asked bitterly, clutching onto her head with her wings, her talons started to knot up like a stiff fists.

"........The demons devoured her soul once at the spirit temple near Mt. Mantra. The reason why they did this was........BECAUSE THEY CAME FROM YOU! YOU, RIZA!"

"STOP IT! Don't say such things!" Riza wailed in pain, throwing herself on the ground. Then, the being had enough with Riza and decided to toy with Dune's mind for a bit.

"Dune, pull out your gun, and aim it towards your comrades here." tears started to form from the Treasure Hunter's eyes.

"But, but....they are friends? Why would I want to kill the people I care about?" Dune groaned as he held onto his gun he got out from his web like armor.

"Oh really?" The voice cackled. "Then how come they separated you from your dear friend, Kidd?"

"DAMMIT, KIDD CAN TAKE CARE OF HIMSELF!" Dune yelled.

"Face it Dune, you are just their puppet. Kill them and you can be freed!" The voice said in a convincing tone of voice. In a fit of madness, Dune pulled out his gun, Surlent summoned out the "Tori-Shi" ("Death Sending Bird") scepter he inherited from Houzhen, Scion pulled out his huge Apocalypse blade, Riza's feathers on her arm/wings started to turn into razor sharp blades and Ridley's onyx black claws started to grow quite long, ready to stab anyone or anything.

"DIE DIE DIE! You will all fight till all dies and one lives! GYA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!" the voice told everybody in the room. Everyone circled each other, raised their weapons and started to brawl. 

"DIE DIE!" Everyone screamed in rage and insanity. Everyone started to fight like lions, using combination of their weapons, mantra spells and their own fists. Being alarmed to hear the loud shouting and screaming, Azrael and Xibalba rushed out of the restroom and decided to check up on the warriors, being introduced to a grisly surprise.

"EVERYONE, STOP ALL THIS MADNESS!" Xibalba shouted, trying to shake everyone around, trying to get them back to their senses, making them let go of their weapons of distract them from further attacking. Azrael started to use his mind transmitting tool on the warriors, picking of some strange signals from the warriors' minds.

"Oh dear...." Azrael groaned. "Some force on this ship is trying to warp everyone's minds here. That is why the ones with the sacred Jades were brawling." This gave the Aeonese a plan.

"Stand back Xibalba!" warned Azrael as he started to use some bolts of holy light to rid of the evil aura that dwelled inside the minds of the Jade Warriors. Surely enough, the presence left their minds and evaporated, leaving the companions totally clueless on what has been happening.

"Ugh....." Surlent started to look around the place. "What HAPPENED?"

"Are we there yet?" Ridley asked, feeling slightly dazed. 

"Well, no time to explain, we must get going!" cried Xibalba as he, Azrael and the others started to join together though the corridors that led to the main office. Suddenly, a scream of rage started to pierce the hallways.

"SAMUS!!!" cried out Azrael. 

"Come on everyone, let's roll." Dune shouted as everyone started to drift as fast as they could down the corridors. Ridley broke the door off the hinges and witnessed a great battle going in the chairman's office.

"Oh great, there are TWO Samuses!" cried out Ridley. "Now WHAT ARE WE TO DO?" 

"Listen Ridley, listen closely." Xibalba explains. "You have seen Samus' new armor and spaceship, right?"

"Yes, indeed I have."

"Okay. Well, Ridley, eventually, there was a clone of Samus that the X-virus created from the remains of the mutations that were gassed down weeks ago. The clone used Samus' old armor and ship and is trying to pass off as a warrior for the GF" Ridley looked stunned.

"Really? How odd." Ridley responded, sounding calmer than ever.

"The X-virus also started to resurrect the dead mutations as well. " adds Azrael. "But luckily, if we all keep fighting like this, we could all eliminate the beings." Then Surlent, Scion, Riza and Dune made way and started to get into the battle scene between Samus, AR905/Hayley and the resurrected mutations.

"Samus, we gotten everything taken care of here." Scion announces to Samus. "Try to get everything ready for the people to safely evacuate, okay?"

"Okay! I think the colony is sadly, far from recovery." Samus says, heading out of the room, rounding up civilians to escape pods that led to worlds rich with life. Ridley also started to make his scene, his body sweating out magma and igniting him in flames.

"I'm your worst nightmare bitch." snarled Ridley, the dragon Rudra. "Prepare to DIE!"

"That's what you think. HAH HAH HAH HAH HAH!" Now, the vessel was a battle field. It was Surlent, Ridley, Scion, Riza and Dune against AR905/Hayley and a horde of strange mutations. Ridley engulfed himself in his magma flames and started to ram himself into the monstrosities, roasting them into just mere ash. Scion ignited his sword in thunder and started to slash up more of the twisted beings, having them explode as they touched Scion's blade. 

"NO, NO! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Hayley shouted in rage as she grabbed out her missiles and started to aim them at all the Jade Warriors! "Eat missiles! HA HA HA HA!!!"

"Crap!" Surlent shouted as he saw the missiles coming. He flew up into the air and grabbed the missiles. "Ha ha, tables have turned!" Surlent casts a deadly earth elemental mantra on the missiles and threw them at more of the mutations, petrifying them in place. Surlent then summoned the "Tori-Shi" (Death sending Bird) to break the petrified beings into nothing but mere dust. Riza's feathers on her arm/wings turned to razor-sharp blades and started to fly through the air frantically, slashing every mutation up until they were just a bloody, gooey mess. She shook the blood off her arm/wings and restored them to a clean state. Dune started to summon the "Death Star" towards the mutations he was dealing with, sucking all the life force out of their bodies and transmitted them to energy.

However, Hayley was not even close to quitting. She started to distract the warriors with her grappling missiles, spreading them apart from the mutations.

"Now, what is the meaning of this?" Hayley sneered, eyeing the five warriors. Ridley stood up and towered over the twisted woman in armor.

"You, YOU were the one to start this madness!" Ridley shouted, lifting Hayley off the ground by her chest. "We, however, are going to stop this madness!" Ridley then started to whip Hayley with his razor sharp metal tail, and threw her up against the wall with full force, strong enough to break off some of the armor.

"We are just trying to protect the innocent and rid the enemy." Riza said calmly, as she summoned her "Blade of Light" rapier from her mouth and shot it right into Hayley's chest. 

"You're days are almost over!" Scion snarled, pummeling the weary creature. Hayley started to wheeze and her breath started to get heavy, showing signs of wear all over her face stained with indigo blood.

"What shall my master say about this!?" cried out Hayley. "Anyways, I'm only doing what Master Nothingness tells me to do." This started to enrage everyone even more.

"Your master is the NOTHINGNESS?!" Surlent shouted out. "I should have known!" Surlent started to summon liquid tendrils from his Re-Birth crystal, holding Hayley in place.

"Now, now I can explain here." Haley pled. Everyone stared at her warily.

"What is it you need to say?" Ridley asked, feeling suspicious. Hayley, in her shattered armor started to breath hard some more.

"I am only commanded to return everything to the beginning of time. Y'know, nothing lasts forever....."

"True." Surlent responds. "But still, the worlds here are not ready to return to nothingness yet, and it should be up to us, and the supreme beings to take care of that."

"Yes, you all have no right to toy with things like that." Dune added.

"What do you 'supreme deity beings' know anyways?" Hayley spouted in a snobbish tone of voice. "Master Nothingness knows more than any of you! HA HA HA HA" Then, Hayley's armor started to burst and she became a horrible monster that resembled an un-comfortable mixture between a jelly-fish, a protozoa and some tree fungi. The strange being started to force the other mutations to fuse with her, making the glowing neon red mass grow bigger and bigger. All the warriors were knocked to the ground.

"KYA HA HA HA!!! I am Specimen AR905, THIS here is my real form! You are all no match for me, nor my master!" All the warriors gotten up and pre-pared to attack.

"So, this is your game, huh? We'll see about that." Ridley yelled, sweating out magma and turning into his fire being form. "Do your worst!" Ridley started to use his whole body as a weapon against AR905, burning holes within her and ripping apart the slimy, gooey flesh. Suddenly, as Ridley became his normal Rudra form, AR905's tentacle lifted him off the ground by his four wings.

"Okay, I will *do my worst*!" cackled AR905 as she let go of Ridley and started to absorb him with her lasers that traveled from tentacle to tentacle, draining the dragon Rudra. He started to toss around and shake nervously, feeling weakened by the laser's full force. Riza came by and flew into the scene, ripping the tentacles apart, one by one, with her talons. As Ridley started to fall, Riza caught him in her arms and safely flew down to the ground. "What are you doing here?"

"Do I have to say?" Riza said, smiling. She then summoned her light rapier again, grabbed it with her talons while flying up to AR905 and dropped the rapier on her weak spot, the nucleus in the center. Suddenly, AR905 bled out some humanoid and reptilian forms out from the nucleus.

"I'm not as easy as I look." cackled AR905. Already, the forms started to take on the Rudra forms of Scion, Surlent, Riza, Dune and Ridley. "Say hello to specimens SC906, SU907, RZ908, DN909 and RY910! KYA HA HA HA HA!!!" 

The clones started to charge their flesh and blood counterparts, using the same techniques as their counterparts. Now it was time to fight fire with fire. Scion and SC906 were dueling each other, using their most powerful sword techniques against each other. Surlent and SU907 were casting their most powerful mantra spells, but with one problem: BOTH HAVE THE SAME ELEMENTAL STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES. Riza started to tackle and slice up RZ908, however, RZ908 had her own ideas as well, and counter-attacked with her magnetic energy orbs she shot out at Riza. Dune started to fight specimen DN909 with his gun-power and combining mantra with bullets, while Ridley used his firepower, darkness elements, claws and razor tail against specimen RY910. All of the sudden, in the middle of the bloody battle, Dune came up with a plan.

"Hey, hey, I get it now!" Dune exclaimed. 

"What is it?" wheezed Ridley, trying to put a death grip on his struggling clone.

"Try using the opposite elements against our doppelgangers. If we keep fighting like this, AR905 will surely give up!"

"Sounds great Dune!" responds Surlent, having a series of thoughts. But now, he had to think deeply, casting the mantra that dwelled on the enemies' weaknesses. Everyone fought as hard as they could against their clones, using their best weaponry, abilities and whatever it would take to rid of such horrible beings. Scion dowsed his saber into Ridley's darkness elementals and used the saber to fight against SC906, Surlent used thunder and lightning spells against SU907, eventually sending out his thunderbird to take of matter, while Riza and Ridley swap their elementals for a temporary amount of time and each one took turns on taking on RZ908 and RY910. Dune, on the other hand, just continued to absorb his bullets in various elementals, since specimen DN909 kept switching elementals on him. While the clones were weakening and retreating inside specimen AR905, all attention turned to AR905.

"What did you just do here?" shouted AR905. "Those were my best specimens!" The monster was weakened, but still was willing to fight on. "You'll pay!" 

AR905 started to spray out poisonous bile all over the place, eroding everything in site, but strangely being reflected off of the Jade Warriors.

"Hey guys, I have an idea!" Surlent whispered to his friends. Everyone gathered closer to Surlent, listening to what he has to say. "Okay, listen up! Once you guys use your special abilities, I'll will send the Tori-Shi (Death Sending bird) to the center of AR905's body. Okay?"

"Yes." Everyone responds, smiling. "We are ready! HA HA HA!"

"Oh really?" AR905 wondered. "We'll see about that!"

"NOW!!!" Surlent shouted loudly. Scion pulled out some little blades and ignited them with blue fire, Riza started to shoot out some lasers from the crystals on her wings and chest, Dune summoned the 'Nagasu' wave and Ridley shot out a huge fiery blast. Suddenly, Surlent summoned the Tori-Shi to swallow up all the elements and head right to AR905's nucleus, sending the jelly-like monster to act up.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!" the twisted creature yelled. "Nooooo! I'm disintegrating!" All of the sudden, AR905 was no more than a semi-dried puddle of slime.

"Sayonara! HA HA HA HA" Ridley laughed as he sent a flaming spear on the remains, eliminating the threat. Scion, Surlent, Riza and Dune started to opened up the locked door that imprisoned Chairman Kilmer, Gulim-Che and Dr .Rebine.

"What are you guys doing here? It's dangerous!" cried out chairman Kilmer.

"Don't worry, she's gone." Surlent coaxed as he, Scion, Riza and Dune helped the others become freed from their chains and help them get out of the office. Suddenly, the sirens started to go off frantically.

"ATTENTION! ATTENTION! THE GALACTIC FEDERATION VESSEL WILL SELF DESTRUCT IN APPROXIMATELY TEN MINUTES! ALL CIVILIANS AND OFFICIALS EVACUATE AT ONCE!"

"COME ON, WE ALL MUST GO!" cried out Xibalba and Azrael as they helped the civilians and officials to escape the main GF vessel. The Jade Warriors also helped out with setting up escape pods for everyone as time started to pass.

"Please! Don't panic, just get into the escape pods, at once!" Riza announces as she and the others helped everyone onto an escape pod. Samus also started to make her scene alongside the Jade Warriors, as well as some of the Hana-Nim crew members.

"You guys okay?" Samus asked. Everyone nodded.

"Yes, we just helped out many people here escape." Surlent responded.   
  
"THREE MINUTES UNTIL SELF DESTRUCTION!"

"Shit, we must go, and at once!" Ridley shrieked as he gathered his companions and followed the Hana-Nim crew and Samus out of the GF vessel and back to their mother ship and Samus' ship. 

As everybody left the GF colonial vessel, whether in an escape pod or relief ships, everyone gotten to witness the huge explosion of the GF colonial vessel from a distance in space. 

"Oh no! My home, my home! What shall we do now!" chairman Kilmer shouted out in sadness on the Hana-Nim. Kary came up to the former chairman and tried to comfort him.

"Oh, don't worry Kilmer. The important thing was that you were saved." Kary responded softly, wrapping her arm and wing around Kilmer. 

"Well Kilmer...." Gulim-Che says in a satisfied voice. ".....I guess you underestimated the people of Dai-Chi and Ridley." Kilmer's yellow eyes were full of shock.

"WHAT???" Kilmer cried out. "RIDLEY WAS BEHIND ALL OF THIS? I SHOULD HAVE....."

"No no Kilmer....! Ridley happened to save our lives. Him and the people of Dai-Chi" explains Gulim-Che. "If it were not for them, we would have either died in the explosion or be devoured by the strange mutations." Kilmer started to blush hard, feeling ashamed of what he said about them before.

"So sorry I did not listen to you or Dr. Rebine." Kilmer sighs. "I guess you, Samus, Xibalba and Azrael were right, Ridley did change, and all for the better!" As some of the former GF members and the Aeonese Hana-Nim crew were helping out each other, they started to approach a familiar planet once more.

"HELLO EVERYONE, THIS IS CAPTAIN ZOLTAN! WE ARE NOW GOING TO ARRIVE ON THE PLANET DAI-CHI! WE ARE GOING TO FUEL UP AND REST UP BEFORE ONE MORE THING HAS TO GET DONE BY OUR HEROIC JADE WARRIORS!"

Finally, it was home sweet home for the heroic team for once. It would a rest well deserved.


	8. Home, at last?

****

Heart of a Dragon

By Karasuhato, the "Raven Dove"

(karasuhato@ecmail.i-p.com)

****

and 

Ultima Mayu

(mayu_roxx@hotmail.com)

****

---

The "Metroid" series is copyright of Nintendo co. ltd.

"Rudra no Hihou" (Rudra's Secret Treasure) is copyright of Squaresoft and Graphical Corporations CROWD inc.

****

---

Karasuhato's Key/Legend to story elementals:

= A character's thoughts

__

italics=character's point of view

CAPITAL LETTERS= character talking loudly

****

---

Home, at last?

---

At last, the Hana-Nim was starting to reach the atmosphere of Dai-Chi. Scion, Surlent, Riza and Dune were all in their normal forms and dressed up in the armor they would always wear on their journeys. Ridley also took on his normal form as well, thinking that he would have no need to attack anyone on the planet. Everyone gotten ready to head to their destinations.

"Okay, here is the plan." Surlent said, leading everyone to a room full of teleportation devices. "We will use these devices to teleport ourselves to a different part of the world. I'll use the device to teleport myself to see Legin back at Oriab. Scion will use his to meet his crew at the Kryunu dynasty. Dune will be back on the ark with his friend, Kidd. As for Riza, her father, and Ridley, they will go back to the continent where Kahn and Babel are at."

"Uhhhhh....what about everyone else Surlent?" Dune asked. "And more over, what about Samus or the former Galactic Federation members?" 

"Don't worry so much Dune." Ridley responds, nudging Dune with his elbow. "I think everyone on the Hana-Nim knows what they are doing." Everyone started to start up the devices, getting ready to head off to their destination, while the Hana-Nim fuels up and gets things straightened out with everybody.

"READY?" Surlent shouts out.

"YES! WE ARE READY!" Everyone responds. The switches turn on, the surroundings between everybody began to evaporate and cloud up. The eyes of the travelers became tired and were tightly shut, hoping to make it safely.

"LISTEN!" Surlent says telepathically to the Hana-Nim crew and the GF refugees. "IF THINGS GET WORSE! WE WILL COME BACK TO YOU!"

****

---

As the Hana-Nim was bound for Dai-Chi, Samus Aran had a busy schedule on her hands. She had to head out back into space once again and help some of the former GF civilians on finding a new home for them to live. However, she was not alone, for Xibalba, Azrael and Gulim-Che also assisted the great space hunter on finding some ideal planets.

"Have any of you found any ideal planets?" Gulim-Che asked the warriors. 

"We are still searching." responds Samus, Azrael and Xibalba, still searching around the galaxy. "Say, what about Planet Hatikva Gulim-Che? Isn't your kind tolerant enough of other beings not of their kind." Gulim-Che thought about it for a bit. His clan, the Chozo, were much more tolerant than any other race he has came upon on his journeys, despite the genocide the Zebesian raiders did to them on Zebes. 

"I see no objection at all." Gulim-Che replies. Samus, Azrael, Xibalba and Gulim-Che led some of the escape pods over to Planet Hatikva, leading the people to safety. Some of the other refugees were sent to other life-bearing planets, including Earth, Ashura, Centauri, Aeon, Mars and of course, Dai-Chi. If planets were not enough, Samus and her crew eventually contacted some space colonies that once helped out the Galactic Federation, wiling to help the warriors with the refugees that lost their home in the great explosion. The job was long, but things were getting done as recorded.

****

---

Everyone from Dai-Chi were glad to be home again. It seemed like a long time since any of the jade warriors (excluding Ridley, since he is originally from Aeon/Zebes) have seen their friends or checked up on their sanctuaries. Professor Jilde, however, was clueless of his world, since it has been about twenty or so years since he was on his home world. But there was Riza there to lead the way for Jilde and Ridley.

"Want to see my sanctuary guys?" Riza asked, feeling slightly homesick. Both Ridley and Jilde seemed content with that idea. "Well, follow me."

Riza became her Rudra form and Jilde perched and held on tight to his daughter as she gotten herself off the earth and into the sky, with Ridley following her. Ever though Ridley has seen a lot of the environment, he has yet to see the sanctuaries of the neo-Rudras, including Riza's sanctuary. As they kept going in the South-West direction from Kahn and Babel, they all started to come upon an island with a giant golden statue bust resembling Riza. Long ago, it used to be a statue of Meifa there, but with the statue and goddess being no more, it was Riza's turn to do her biddings. 

"This, everyone, is my sanctuary!" Riza announced. As she and Ridley landed to the ground for the entrance way (which are the statue's feet), Professor Jilde climbed off of Riza's back as she became her regular form. As they entered inside the sanctuary, Riza heard quite a few familiar voices within the walls, sounding like prayers. To Riza's surprise, she found some familiar faces lighting some incense and chanting out some verses. As the man and the two boys turned around, they could not believe that they became face to face with the Neo-Rudra herself, as well as her father and companion.

"RIZA!!!!!!" The three males shouted as they were approaching Riza with open arms. 

"Garlyle, Pipin, Lolo, I am glad to see you all again." Riza said softly, hugging her old friends. It seemed to be a while since she has seen Garlyle or Pipin and was quite surprised to see the child and his friend Lolo growing up. Then, Ridley's glowing Yin Jade started to glow, attracting the young men's attentions.

"Wow! A reptilian creature, like myself, with the Jade!?" Pipin shouted in awe. "Amazing!" 

"It's not just any normal Jade though." Lolo replies in fascination. "It is......THE YIN JADE!" Garlyle's eyes widened and he put his hands over his mouth in shock.

"You mean, the Jade the lost deity, Varuna, had with her?" Garlyle asks. "I thought it was never to be seen or inherited again after she offered herself as a sacrifice to the Nothingness." Ridley nods his head calmly, smiling.

"Yes, indeed. However, the nothingness was once at Planet Ashura, and with the love and concern for one whom also carries a Jade, I inherited the Yin Jade." Ridley calmly responded. "I am also the very first non-humanlike creature to ever inherit something so powerful as well. Whom ever known that emotions could be so powerful?" Garlyle, Pipin and Lolo agreed. 

"Amazing." Garlyle replies, feeling quite enlightened. Professor Jilde walked up to the young men and decided to introduce himself and further tell them more about the Yin Jade.

"Hello boys, I am Professor Jilde, the father of Riza." With those very words, Garlyle, Pipin and Lolo looked so stunned, that they looked as if they were going to faint.

"You.......Riza's....father?" stuttered Pipin nervously.

"But, I thought you were dead!" Garlyle shrieked. "Where have you been all of these years?"

"Well, let me tell you this tragic story." Jilde sighed as he started to clear his throat. "The last time I was here, I was imprisoned by Emperor of the Sacred Precinct for some crime I did not even commit. On the day of execution, some human-like creatures helped me escape from jail and took me far away from that planet." Jilde then looks down at his locket, showing Garlyle, Pipin and Lolo the picture of Aqua, his wife and mother of Riza.

"That's.........that's Riza's mother!" Garlyle gasped.

"Eh? So that is why Aqua seemed to be alone and somber a lot." Pipin added, having memories of that one fateful incident that happened at the Spirit Temple a couple years ago.

"Interesting story." Lolo replied. "So, what do you know about the Yin Jade?"

"Well, Ridley and the others told me this story." Jilde took a drink of some of the holy spring water before he could continue on. "A long time ago, Just before the destruction of this being of Nothingness, Houzhen, Meifa, Mitora and Saizou were starting to weaken and were dying from all the energy that they used up on the nothingness, as well as the being trying to live off their energy. Varuna, however, was the only one left feeling healthy and robust. So Varuna, chose the destiny of offering herself as a sacrifice to the Nothingness of Beyond, so Houzhen, Mitora, Meifa and Saizou's life could be saved, and transmitted all of her energy to them as well. But now that all five major Jade elements are re-united, the ones chosen by the Jades could be the bringers of peace and prosperity in the galaxy. Those people are Surlent, Scion, Riza, Dune and RIDLEY here!"

"So that is the story behind the Jades." Lolo exclaimed. "They must be THAT important."

"Indeed." As Jilde was done explaining, Garlyle decided to walk up to Riza, feeling rather ashamed of something he said the last time he was with her.

"Riza, I am sorry about bossing you around on the moon on our journey. I just feel bad about under-estimating you years ago." Garlyle apologized in a somber voice. Riza wore a smile and patted Garlyle on the back.

"It's okay. That was the past, this is the present." Riza say gently. It was also a known fact that back then, Garlyle was eighteen and Riza was seventeen. Now, she was twenty and he was twenty-one. Both were more mature than they were two years ago. Then, the thoughts were interrupted by Lolo's buzzing clock-locket he carried with him.

"EEP! It's time to go back. I don't want my parents thinking that I have been up to any trouble." cried out Lolo. Him, Garlyle and Pipin started to pack their bags and were welcomed to take the healing water inside of Riza's Sanctuary.

"It was nice to see you again Riza." Garlyle says calmly, as he and the boys started to leave the temple and get on with other plans for the day. "I wish you, your father and your friends good luck on the journey to stop the nothingness!"

"Take care." Pipin adds. Riza, Professor Jilde and Ridley wave back as they left the little island and went upon the ship that led back to land.

****

---

Meanwhile, back at Oriab, Surlent told his friend Legin and his sister, Mimiel some of the events that took place the days he was gone.

"You mean that you, Surlent, has fought the mutations that sprung from the Master Nothingness?" Legin asked enthusiastically.

"Yes. I did! But not without the help of my four other friends."

"Amazing!!!" Legin gasped. "You guys are getting to become even more powerful ever since you inherited the powers of the ancients!" 

"Hey Surlent, is it true that a non-humanlike creature inherited a Jade?" Mimiel asked, being equally as enthusiastic as her younger brother. Surlent nodded and smiled.

"Yes. His name is Ridley. He is a dragon-like being from the Planet Aeon. He was once a criminal raider that served an entity known as 'Mother Brain' back on a Planet called 'Zebes'"

"Go on.....!" Regin and Mimiel replied. "Please tell us more." 

"Okay. Well, ever since the planet got destroyed, as well as being devoured by the nothingness of beyond, Ridley was found alive and well, recovering with his own race on their mother ship they call, 'The Hana-Nim', meaning "the Great One". After his recovery from traumatizing memories, he met my friend Riza, whom inherited the Holy Jade from Birth. They both seem to take quite a liking to each other."

"Which Jade did he inherit Surlent?" Legin asked. Surlent cleared his throat and took a drink of Sake, then, got ready for more explaining.

"The Yin Jade. Otherwise known as 'Darkness Jade'." Both Legin and Mimiel were astounded.

"THE DARK JADE? JADE OF THE YIN ELEMENT?" both gasped in shock.

"I thought the Yin Jade was all a myth." Mimiel responds, trying to catch her breath. "You mean there really is such a Jade?"

"Yes. The reason why the Yin Jade was thought to be a myth or fable was because the Jade and it's mistress were once used as a sacrifice for the Nothingness of Beyond. Even though the Nothingness was defeated and her friends recovered, things in the universe did not seem right at all. But now, since the Jade has been recovered once and for all, everything undone shall be whole." 

"Amazing." Legin breathes. "So, it's not a myth, it's REAL!" 

"Yes, indeed." Surlent replies, finishing off his Sake. "Anyone hungry."

"YES!" both Legin and Mimiel replied.

"Very well then." Surlent says, as he, Legin and Mimiel joined him into the kitchen for some refreshments.

****

---

Back on the ark, Dune told Kidd about all the journeys he was on, and whom he met along the way.

"So that is why there was a great explosion in the sky?" Kidd asks Dune, referring to the GF ships self-destruction Yesterday. "How horrible. Did anyone make it"

"Yes, we let every civilian and official escape the ships." Dune sighed. "However, I just hope the people could just have a normal life now and not be too traumatized."

"Man, what a pity." Kidd mutters. "If it were not for that damned nothingness and X-Virus, none of this would have happened. I just hope you and the others will destroy the hellish being once and for all!"

"I hope so too! But with these powers we have all inherited, I see it as a big possibility." Dune yawns as he started to get up and stretch out. "Anyways, it has been some busy months. Let's stop the ark somewhere and rest up."

"Okay, I see no objection." So the two Treasure Hunters park the Ark up in the mountains in the Mt. Mantra range and decided to rest up for a while, going back over their pleasant past times.

****

---

At the Kryunu Dynasty, Scion decided to do some self-defense work outs with Doug, Foxy and Ture for a bit, preparing for that fateful day. He tried to concentrate hard on the punching bags and the targets, trying to hack them up one by one with the sword techniques Saizou has taught him. Scion's old friends were amazed at the strength that he carried within his body.

"Damn, you not so bad Scion." laughed Doug. Scion smiled and removed his eye patch, revealing the Life Jade in his right eye.

"Don't thank me, thank the Jade." Scion chuckled. "It is because of Saizou, the one whom I inherited the god-like powers from."

"So you are a neo-Rudra now?" Ture asks, fixing his eyes on the Life Jade.

"Yes, indeed! I am going to fight the Nothingness one day." Foxy looked stunned at what Scion told his friends.

"I HOPE YOU MAKE IT OUT ALIVE!" cried Foxy. "We would all hate to lose you again!"

"Yeah, we thought you died on the moon fortress before the year 4000 came." Doug added. "I just want you all to make it back safely." Scion looks at all of his friends and nods his head, looking determined.

"Don't worry, I won't be alone." Scion responded calmly. "There are four others to help me out here." Everyone started to look slightly relieved after what Scion explained.

"Okay Scion, but please be careful." responds Ture. Scion smiled back at his friends.

"But I'm not leaving today though, I'll still be with you guys for a while, until the Hana-Nim ship is done sorting things out."

****

---

Nighttime was about to hit the planet Dai-Chi, the sunsets tainting the sky a calm salmon colour. At the sanctuary, Riza, Professor Jilde and Ridley stare up into the sky, pondering their deepest thoughts. Riza also took out her drawing journal and started to sketch her surroundings.

"Man, this planet has changed since the last time I was ever here." Jilde sighed, noticing continents placed in different locations than before and the statue of him daughter in the mountain ranges instead of a statue of Meifa. "Felt like I was on Ashura for not just twenty years, but for many centuries. It was like I was put in a deep sleep or something."

"Well, from what I have seen of this planet, it seems to be quite a nice place. Can't believe that this planet has suffered through so much in the past." Ridley says to Jilde, wind sweeping their faces.

"Yes. That was true, but me, Surlent, Scion, Dune, and our comrades have helped this world from many horrible things that have happened to it." Riza explains. "However, our journey is not over yet. We need to rid of the Nothingness of Beyond and re-unite the elements of the five major jades." Riza grabs a dandelion gone to seed and blows on it, having the seeds fly in the direction of the wind.

"Once the power of your Jades re-unite, a new age will be ushered into Dai-Chi." explains Professor Jilde. "Everyone of this planet thought that day would never come, but since Ridley has inherited the jade, I could see a big possibility of it happening." Jilde started to get up and stretch out for a bit, feeling some slight weariness touching him. "Well, I am going to hit the hey for a bit. Goodnight Ridley, goodnight, dear daughter."

"Good night old man." Ridley says as they both bowed to each other.

"Goodnight papa." Riza said softly, hugging her weary father. "Take it easy for a bit." Now it was just Ridley and Riza alone, since they were not tired yet. Something seemed to distract both of them. Riza sat up and started to look around her and Ridley.

"What's wrong Riza?" Ridley asked, noticing Riza looking somewhat distracted. 

"I'm just thinking.......what are you to do if we defeat the Nothingness of Beyond?" Riza asked, facing Ridley. Ridley closed his eyes and dropped his head slightly.

"Eh? Where will I be? I have nowhere to go anymore." Ridley responded somberly. "Riza, you are probably the first creature to actually take interest in me. I have never felt so good in my life. You and your friends taught me about emotions and the meaning of life and living things. Before then, all I knew was to do what others told me to do. It was like I was being used like a robot. But now, I feel more free to do what I want for once. For many years, I have yearned for that, but never let it show." Riza nodded slightly.

"Yes. I understand where you are coming from. I used act only because I was told so, but now I realize that I must act upon myself. Even though I have a home, but everyday, I think of ones who have nowhere to go and wander for the rest of their lives. I don't want that to happen to you, I want you to live a healthy life as well." Riza took off her crimson armor, leaving the young woman in her smooth white dress. Then she laid back down and huddled up next to Ridley. "I just hope nobody will use you or abuse you ever again. I just can't bear that."

"I understand Riza, I understand." Ridley tells Riza calmly as he could. As the sun started to shrink down into the darkening skies, the tides started to make the surrounding water rise higher than before, slightly touching the couple. This game Riza an idea for relaxation. She started to slip off the rest of her clothing as she made her way into the waters, feeling quite warm, despite the fact that it was nighttime. 

"How nice........" Riza said to herself as she made her way to the water's surface, her red-orange hair totally soaked. Ridley, also feeling quite tempted , decided to join Riza in the water. Before, he was of the fire element and could not touch water for a long period of time, especially cold water. But since he has the Yin Jade, he could go into the water no problem, since the element of Yin helped balanced out the other elements of Ridley's body. 

"This is nice." Ridley says as he tests the water. "Is this the water you use for your sanctuary?"

"Yes, it is." Riza responds. "First however, I purify the water completely, giving the water it's power to heal, whether you bathe in it or drink it."

"Interesting."

In the calmness of the night, in the nice pristine waters, both Riza and Ridley started to feel relief for once, after all of those battles they went through so far. Riza swam closer to the Aeonese Dragon, embracing him, her chest meeting his.

"Ridley...." Riza calmly asked, looking up at him. "What is your destiny?" Ridley smiled at Riza, bringing the woman closer to him yet, his wings enveloping around Riza.

"I found it here, on this world." Ridley responded as he was smoothly stroking Riza's soft, apricot hued flesh. He also puts his huge hand over the back of Riza's head, holding her like how a child latches on to a beloved plush doll. Ridley was finally feeling true happiness, freely expressing himself without an overlord there watching him like a bird-of-prey. This also showed that Ridley himself could can also show his shades of Grey and White, not just Black. A lot of people did not know it then, but things are different now, as Ridley was starting to live his life over again. "My new destiny........is to help this world."

"I'm so proud of you for choosing such a destiny." Riza said telepathically through her Jade. "I remember your first visit to Dai-Chi. Before then, you did not like humanoid beings at all. However, when we met, it seemed like your heart has changed it's course. Remember?" 

"Yes, I do remember." Ridley responds back through his Jade. "If it were not for you, I would have gone nowhere in life and mess myself up greatly. Thank you very much."

"You're welcome, I will always be willing to help the soul whom lost their ways in destiny." Riza suddenly started to feel tired and wanted to rest up whenever she can, since she might not rest for a while when the Master Nothingness comes.

"You look weary Riza. Would you like to dry off and go in the sanctuary?" Ridley asked, looking at Riza's sagging eyelids. 

"Ah yes, it has been a long journey." Riza sighed. He then helped the young woman out of the water, so she can dry herself off. She wrapped the towel around her body and packed up her armor and clothing in her sack of belongings. Ridley also started to feel a little worn out as well and glided out of the water alongside Riza, drying himself off.

"I see what you mean." he said calmly to Riza. "After the nothingness is gone, we could finally do what we want and obtain pure balance." Ridley then started to carry the weary young woman with him and headed back into the sanctuary, where he was greeted by Professor Jilde, looking half asleep.

"You guys must be tired." Jilde responded groggily. "Here, follow me up the elevator and I'll show you where Riza goes to rest." Ridley nodded his head while Jilde headed into the elevator. "Follow me." 

Ridley flew alongside the transparent tube containing Professor Jilde. They past many strange and interesting looking rooms within the sanctuary. Some of the structure looked like normal pagoda temple structure, while other parts looked strangely organic as well. It was like nothing Jilde nor Ridley has ever seen before. Then, at the very top of the sanctuary, around the chest area, Jilde came out of the elevator, Ridley gliding over to him with Riza sleeping in his arms. Both approached a strange, gigantic cushion which happened to literally be the heart of the sanctuary. It was the strangest thing ever to see in a sanctuary or temple, an actual, organic heart!

"Now, it's time to rest." Ridley whispered softly to Riza as he placed her under the cells which served her as a blanket. As Ridley started to stretch his whole gargantuan body out, Jilde pointed out a gem-crested book that fell out of Riza's sack of belongings.

"Ridley, come and see this." Jilde whispered as he beckoned Ridley to come closer. "I want you to look at these amazing brush-strokes my daughter has done.

"Okay." Ridley opened up the book and noticed some black and white ink drawings that were done by Riza herself. Each drawing seemed to capture a special event, almost like a journal. In fact, it was Riza's journal, only there were more drawings than words. The word characters were interesting as well. Since Ridley studied many languages of foreign beings since the days of being a Raider, even he never saw or could write the written language of the Races of Dai-Chi. "How interesting. Riza is quite a good artist indeed."

"Yes, but it's no ordinary journal. It is a journal of the past, the present and what more that could possibly come." Jilde responded as they kept looking through the illustrations. Pictures from childhood to the sixteen days of purification, and from the defeat of the Cycle of Rise and Downfall to the current journey. Then, the two saw a couple pictures that captured their attention. Jilde saw a drawn picture of his locket with Aqua's picture in it and a profile drawing of himself. "She captures every little thing in her pictures. How remarkable."

"I'll have to agree old man." Ridley replies, looking at the illustrations of Jilde and his artifacts. Then, Ridley decided to turn one more page and saw a picture that caught his eyes:

Ridley himself, and Riza together in their Rudra forms, embracing. The picture represented the Yin and Yang of the worlds, and their destinies to balance each other out and help each other out in the future.

"Beautiful." Ridley whispered, grinning. "I'll make that dream come true. Not just for you Riza, but for Jilde, Scion, Surlent, Dune and every living thing of this world."

"I'm glad you found your destiny Ridley." Jilde said quietly. "Remember, don't get discouraged."

Ridley nodded his head as the two parted to get some rest. Hopefully, to rest up beofre the fateful day shall come.

****

---

Meanwhile, as the crew of the Hana-Nim and the former Galactic Federation were done sorting things out and fueling up their mother ship, a signal from space started to come through the intercoms, sounding quite urgent.

"HANA-NIM! CALLING HANA-NIM! THIS IS SAMUS ARAN. ME AND MY COMRADES HAVE RAN INTO A BIG PROBLEM HERE.....!" Listening closer, the crew memebers noticed heavy static and strange eerie laughing sounds in the background, not to mention weapons being shot out.

"What's happening Samus?" cried Kilmer, grabbing the intercom microphone. "Sounds like chaos going on, is there?"

"OH HI KILMER. YES, THERE IS A CHAOTIC SITUATION HERE. ME, XIBALBA, AZRAEL AND GULIM-CHE WERE LEADING THE FINAL GROUP OF REFUGEES TO SOME LIFE-BEARING PLANETS, WHEN SUDDENLY, AN ENTITY OF PURE MIST, EVIL EYES AND ETHEREAL POWER STARTED TO COME OUT OF NOWHERE, ATTACKING US, TRYING TO DESTROY EVERYTHING IN SITE! THE FATEFUL DAY FOR THE 'JADE WARRIORS' IS COMING SOON! " After that, there was nothing but static, as if the transition went out in a flash. Captain Zoltan, General Arvis and Kary looked determined, thinking of some ideas.

"Well......we better tell this to the warriors. I hope they know this." Zoltan said sternly. Kary nods her head, looking at the space radars.

"Don't worry, they shall be rested up before the Nothingness reaches this world." Kary replies. "It's just their instincts to know when something like this is coming."

"Oh, I hope so." Arvis responded nervously. "I honestly hope so."

. 


	9. The Final Battle

****

Heart of a Dragon

By Karasuhato, the "Raven Dove"

(karasuhato@ecmail.i-p.com)

****

and 

Ultima Mayu

(mayu_roxx@hotmail.com)

****

---

The "Metroid" series is copyright of Nintendo co. ltd.

"Rudra no Hihou" (Rudra's Secret Treasure) is copyright of Squaresoft and Graphical Corporations CROWD inc.

****

---

Karasuhato's Key/Legend to story elementals:

= A character's thoughts

__

italics=character's point of view

CAPITAL LETTERS= character talking loudly

****

---

The Final Battle

---

At last, the fateful day was to finally coming. After picking up a signal from the Hana-Nim, Riza and Ridley summoned Surlent, Scion and Dune to come to the sanctuary and get pre-pared for things to come. It was a couple days since Samus and her crew warned everyone about the Master Nothingness, before coming back to the Hana-Nim.

"Okay, here are the plans." Ridley announced to everyone near Riza's Sanctuary. "Riza, Professor Jilde and the others with the Jades have told me and Jilde that the sanctuary could become a space-ship, that could take us to the destination of choice; therefore, we decided to travel in here to reach the Master Nothingness." Out of the crowd on Hana-Nim crew members, Captain Zoltan stepped out of the crowd, ready to explain more things to the Jade warriors.

"We all know where this Nothingness resides!" Zoltan explained. "If you all follow us, we will show you where this vortex resides now." Jilde then started to raise his hand as he made it out of the sanctuary's entrance.

"Ahem, sir! I don't carry the Jade, I am just a mere researcher, that's all." Jilde shouted out. Captain Zoltan nodded his head and made a hand gesture to come here.

"Then, for your safety, you shall come with us. The Sanctuary itself is heading into a major danger zone." Zoltan told Jilde, as he approached the immense Hana-Nim mother ship. Before he entered, he waved good-bye to his daughter.

"Good luck Riza." Jilde said to Riza, getting ready to leave. "Be strong!"

"Thank you papa!" Riza replied, smiling and waving, going back to her sanctuary. The Jade warriors quickly made their way up into the chest area, where the controls were at, waiting for a signal by the Hana-Nim to get ready to follow them into space. Back at the Hana-Nim, Samus Aran and her comrades were working on some weapons that could help them defend themselves from this Master Nothingness.

"So, you guys have been working on some inventions all these hours?" Dr. Rebine asks, checking up on Samus, Gulim-Che, Xibalba and Azrael.

"Yes, we have." Samus replied, showing all the mechanics before shutting up the shells and lifting the tank up with her super strength she gained from the vaccine. "Since the vortex entity has became more powerful, we decided to create some special devices that could help us weaken the creature."

"It is called the 'Void Destroyer'. These babies could take care of any threatening black hole or entity bent on returning life to where it started." Azrael responded, getting all his things together. Dr. Lagua walked into the lab where Samus' party were working and was quite pleasantly surprised with the knowledge of the Space Hunters.

"Amazing creations you all have gotten planned up." Dr. Lagua said calmly. "However, only use them in a time of desperation. Okay?"

"Alright." As Samus' party were getting the five Void Destroyers into the space ships, the Hana-Nim intercom started to turn on.

"GET READY FOR TAKE OFF!" Captain Zoltan announced to the Space Hunters and the Flying Sanctuary. The Hana-Nim took a take off first, so they could lead the Jade Warriors to place of destination. Three days have past since everybody has set out into the deep voids of space, keeping an eye out for what danger could lurk. 

"Do you sense anything coming our way Riza?" Surlent asked Riza, being deep in thought, playing as the radar for her beloved sanctuary.

"Ummmmmmm......I think I am hearing......some strange sounds........" Riza stuttered nervously. Then she rolled herself up into a ball, clutching her glowing Holy Jade on her forehead in terror. "What is the meaning of this?" Then suddenly, loud, eerie noises started to echo through both the flying sanctuary and the Hana-Nim, both getting ready for this unpleasant surprise that awaits them all. Ridley flew his way up to the head of the sanctuary, and turned on the view screen, to take a look at what was causing the sources of such hideous sounds.

"Guys......Ummmmm........THIS MASTER NOTHINGNESS, IT IS HERE, ALREADY!" Ridley cried out in shock. However, screaming and going hysterical would not solve anything, so Ridley started to telepathically communicate with the whole entire Hana-Nim mother ship. 

"_Everybody, this is me, Ridley, the Dragon Rudra. We have all found the Master Nothingness here and we are all going to land on the ruins of the moon fortress to battle this horrible being! Don't worry, me and my friends shall defeat the damned vortex, even if it costs our lives!"_

"EGH! Are they insane?" Samus shrieked. "They are suppose to be amongst a race of deities. If they decide to sacrifice themselves like that, there will be no hope for their worlds!"

"Come on everyone, we have no time to lose now!" Xibalba cried out as he and others of Samus' crew have hopped into their battle cruisers and gotten ready to fight the vortex whenever necessary. 

"CAPTAIN ZOLTAN, EVERYONE, THIS IS SAMUS ARAN! IN CASE THINGS GET WORSE HERE IN SPACE, WE WILL USE OUR 'VOID DESTROYERS' TO RELEASE THE NEGATIVE ENERGY OF THE MASTER NOTHINGNESS AND FILTER IT INTO ENERGY THAT COULD HELP. HOWEVER, FOR NOW, WE ARE HEADING INTO SPACE, OBSERVING THE VORTEX'S ACTIONS! OVER."

"Very well guys." Captain Zoltan replies to the Space hunters. "Please be careful.

****

---

On the Ruins of the moon, Surlent, Scion, Riza, Dune and Ridley teleported themselves out of the sanctuary and onto the surface they now call the battle field, all getting prepared for the battle of a lifetime. All of the warriors because their Rudra forms, since it was more powerful than their regular forms and watched the sky, getting ready to battle anytime the Master Nothingness comes.

"Look, something is forming right in front of us!" Surlent shouted, pointing out to the swirling marks in the middle of space. All of the sudden, two wicked eyes started to open up, revealing ethereal mist and a huge crystalline orb full of great powers beyond anyone's comprehension.

"Well, well, I have been waiting for you all to come." Master Nothingness cackled wickedly. "NOW! PREPARE FOR DOOMSDAY!!! KYA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" Now, it was time for the great duel that will one day forever change the universe.

"We'll see about that!" Ridley snarled in anger as he focused himself of the entity. HE then curled himself into a ball, doing mid-air somersaults that shot out fire birds at the Master Nothingness' eyes. Scion leapt high into the air, absorbing his sword in the water/ice element, hacking away at the orb containing the vortex. Scion with all his strength jumped from one spot to another, hacking away at the mist.

"Ha, we are not as easy as we look!" Scion taunted as he was leaping around on the Master Nothingness. The being of the vortex gotten so frustrated with Scion, that it blew him away back to the Moon fortress ruins, the breath causing a dust storm.

However, the warriors refused to give up so easily. Dune started to transform into a gigantic, Naga-like creature, using windblasts of both the Yin and Yang elementals together. Riza battled the Master Nothingness' whirlwinds, and there, she transformed the feathers that fell from her wings/arms into laser projectiles, shooting at the center of the vortex and slimy fragments that flew out of it. Surlent also used his powerful abilities, powering up for his attacks. He perched onto his magical orb, and from the eye if Surlent's orb, comets and the fragments started to fly out and combat with the slime fragments and the harsh whirlwinds. 

"Oh, is that so?" the Master Nothingness growled, coldly staring at the warriors whom fought as hard as they could. "TAKE THIS!!!" The twisted being started to shoot out some meteorite fragments out at everyone and everything, sending pieces of the ruins shattering and flying up from the waste. some struck the warriors, but like usual, they dodged the meteorite fragments as much as possible. However, everyone was to stick together and not separate. Dune in his Naga form, started to shoot out atomic rays at the entity, Ridley summoned an orb of darkness to blind the Master Nothingness, Riza shot out powerful Ball Lightning at the vortex being, Surlent created a force field that reflected the meteors off of himself and back to the being, while Scion used his best elemental sword techniques and would ravenously attack the Master Nothingness.

"BASTARDS! HOW DARE YOU!" Master Nothingness snarled in rage. The being suddenly started to glow radioactively, closing its eyes.

"What is the meaning of this?" Surlent cried out, shielding his eyes. Then, in a flash of a second, the Master Nothingness opens its eyes, summoning a great force to suck up the energy from the five warriors.

"See my great powers now?! HA HA HA HA HA!" cackled the Master Nothingness, dropping the warriors to their knees. They all reverted to their normal forms, since it takes some energy for their Rudra forms to live on.

"D.......DAMN YOU! WE WILL KILL YOU!!!" Ridley screeched in agony, waving his fists. Back at the Hana-Nim, Samus, Azrael, Xibalba and Gulim-Che took off from where the Hana-Nim stood, flying more into the Master Nothingness' terrain.

"Samus, Gulim-Che, Azrael, Xibalba!" Ion Kilmer cried out on the intercom. "Why the hell are you guys going out where the Master Nothingness is? It's dangerous!"

"Don't worry, I know how to fight these kind of beings." Samus Aran responded through the transmitter.

"We all know that Samus, but this entity, it is like no other being you guys have ever battled before." Kary cried out, feeling stunned.

"Please be careful." Dr. Lagua cautions the group. "If you can, try using you Void Destroyers!" As the space hunters made their way out of the ship, Samus and her comrades turned on the view screens to observe the five Jade Warriors.

"Oh lord, look at the warriors. They are in horrible condition!" Gulim-Che observes.

"Damn, that beam must have drained them of their energy." Xibalba replies, looking at his screen. Then he faced Samus on his view screen. "Hey Samus, when should we use the Void Destroyer?"

"Whenever the Master Nothingness uses that beam on the warriors again." Samus replies back, facing Xibalba on her view screen, looking quite stern. "For now, let's distract the being."

"Okay." Everyone gotten out their weapon supplies on their ships and started to use them against the Master Nothingness. The Master Nothingness took its eyes off of the Jade Warriors and faced Samus' party.

"More trying to fight me?" the Master Nothingness thought in anger, looking at the four space cruisers shooting away. "I will show them."

"Oh lord, LOOK!" Azrael shouted out, as he had all the view screens view the up-close of the Master Nothingness, glowing violently yet again. "We should get ready to use the Void Destroyers!" Everybody started to shoot out some vacuum hoses from their ships, getting ready to absorb the energy from the being.

"On the count of three, turn on the Void Destroyers to take its energy away!" Samus announced to her comrades, observing the Master Nothingness. "One...........! Two............! ............THREE!!!"

When the Master Nothingness opened up its eyes again, the space hunters started to inject the vacuums into the central orb of the vortex, taking the energy away from it.

"AAAAAACK! WHAT'S HAPPENING!" the Master Nothingness started to scream and howl out loud in pain and agony, feeling the energy pour from its misty body. The Jade Warriors started to rub their eyes, trying to clear their vision of what was now going on.

"What is happening to the Master Nothingness?" Dune asked, noticing the strange activities between the battle cruisers and the Master Nothingness.

"I think they are draining away some of the energy from the being, but why?" Riza replies, looking at the glowing beings battling each other. Samus' party started to feel great relief about the success of their weapons.

"YAYYYYYY! We are getting a truckload of energy from this monstrosity!" Azrael shouted in pure bliss though the intercom. As Samus' party started to plunge the vacuum hoses into the orb of the vortex, the Master Nothingness started to put up less of a struggle and started to turn a dim light gray. Finally, its eyes were shut tightly.

"Since we have a lot of energy in all five Void Destroyers, what shall we do with the energy now?" Gulim-Che asked on the intercom.

"FOLLOW ME!" Samus responded on the intercom, halting the three ships, so she could lead them to her destination. Samus Aran led Xibalba, Azrael and Gulim-Che over to the Moon Fortress' ruins, "Listen, there are some lives that need to be saved here. So let's use the energy to save these people."

"Even Ridley?" Gulim-Che asked warily, knowing all about the bitter feuding between Samus and Ridley.

"Yes, even Ridley!" Samus, Xibalba and Azrael replied in unison. Even though Samus and Ridley never really gotten along, he has became more of an importance to the galaxy now, ever since he has inherited the long lost Yin Jade. So the space hunters landed their battle cruisers and each pulled out their Void Destroyers machines as quickly as possible. All five were sent on reverse and Samus, Gulim-Che, Xibalba and Azrael attached inhalers on to the hoses, so the Jade Warriors could get some fresh energy to help them attack again.

"So far, so good." Samus Aran thought to herself in anticipation, as she and the comrades watched Surlent, Scion, Riza, Dune and Ridley recover before their eyes. They all started to regain more healthy colour in their flesh and started to inhale and exhale normally. As the warriors started to absorb the energy within their bodies, other thoughts crossed the minds of the Space Hunters.

"We have been through so much in our lives......" Gulim-Che sighed.

"I have a feeling this will be our final mission." Samus said somberly.

"I know we are looked upon as heroes, but universe without the higher beings would be emptiness." Azrael added, all the comrades bowing their heads.

"I think the ones with the Jade should continue on the legacy of defending the universe." Xibalba said quietly. As the Jade warriors were recovering more and more energy, the Master Nothingness' eyes started to open up.

"Samus, LOOK OUT!" Ion Kilmer shouted on the intercom.

"The Master Nothingness is regaining consciousness." Professor Jilde warned, but Samus and her party did not care, as long as Surlent, Scion, Riza, Dune and Ridley were healthy and ready to move on.

"I know, but what could we do?" Samus Aran replied in a weary sounding voice. As Samus' party started to head back to their ship, she noticed the Jade warriors totally recovered and in their Rudra forms, ready to fight on.

"Thank you very much." Surlent bowed as he handed Samus' party the void destroyers. "You want these back?"

"No sir, you may all keep them in case of another major emergency." Samus replied as she and the crew members took off in their ships and fought the Master Nothingness. "BE BRAVE EVERYBODY!"

Samus' party started to use as many weapons as possible against the Master Nothingness. However, even though it awakened, it was still enraged.

"THIS IS FOR DRAINING ME!!!" the Master Nothingness shouted as it started to attack the battle cruisers frantically. Both the vortex being and the Space Hunters fought with all their might. 

But all of the sudden, Samus Aran, Gulim-Che, Xibalba and Azrael were all fresh out of their ammunition, leaving them to do one final thing.

"Now, we must take matters into our own hands." Samus and the crew whispered to themselves started to fly towards the core of the Master Nothingness. "We will all die for freedom and be re-born anew!"

With those last thoughts, Samus, Gulim-Che, Xibalba, and Azrael flew towards the cracked orb, crashing their ships into it, shattering some of the surface and releasing shards all over the place, as well as pieces of their battle cruisers.

"NOOOOOOO! SAMUS!!!" Ion Kilmer shouted in horror, seeing what these Space Hunters have done for the Jade warriors. 

"Why now? Why did they have to go now?" Dr. Rebine sobbed loudly. Dr. Lagua held the woman, lending her a shoulder/wing to cry on.

"I know they were great people. They would have wanted it this way." Dr. Lagua responded softly. General Arvis flew up to the window, observing the mass destruction.

"All have been through so much over the years, this is how they would have wanted it." Arvis said somberly. "I am just glad to see the feuding between Samus and Ridley finally ended. Who would have known that one day, Ridley would have a change of heart and Samus, the one Ridley fought constantly, would help him that very day."

****

---

Meanwhile, on the moon's surface, a great surge of energy flowed through the veins of the Jade Warriors. The Master Nothingness enraged them so much, that they knew that they had to use the most powerful of techniques to destroy the thing.

"HA HA, YOU GUYS ARE NEXT TO DIE!" The Master Nothingness cackled loudly. Even though it lost a lot of power, the Master Nothingness wanted the battle to continue on, making everyone more frustrated than ever.

"NOT IF WE COULD HELP IT!!!" Surlent shouted at the top of his lungs. Suddenly, the Jade Warriors started to feel their bodies going through a great metamorphosis. Scion became a great Dragon King, with long serpentine body, scales like blades, five hundred legs and talons with sharp, hook-like claws and the fiery hair like swords on fire. Surlent felt himself becoming a golden Garuda bird, body shining in great radiance, and a shiny crystal within his chest. Riza became a Feng Huan (Phoenix Bird) whom brought great harm to her foes, but would also take the foes energy and heal her friends with it. Dune started to become the legendary Kirin, the creature whom punishes the wicked with its horns. Finally, Ridley became an even mightier dragon yet, with skin like shiny platinum armor, four tough wings of metal and the ability to cast out mighty plasma rays to instantly kill anyone unfortunate to cross his path. All the beings started to gang up on the master Nothingness, using their most fatal powers to eliminate the cruel being.

"NOOOOO.....!" The Master Nothingness wheezed out in agony. Scion, Surlent, Riza, Dune and Ridley, in their new forms, attacked the entity constantly, weakening it more and more. Scion fought tooth and nail, Surlent summoned out the Tori-Shi (Death Sending Bird) from the crystal within his chest, Riza started to use scorching heat to weaken the Master Nothingness, using its energy to heal her friends, Dune used beams of light and dark from his horns while Ridley breathed out the plasma rays onto the Master Nothingness, making it turn a bright crimson red with weakness.

"Wait, I have a plan!" Surlent exclaimed. "Let us combine all four of our elements together! Does that sound good enough?

"YEAH!" Everyone shouted in ambition. All the Jade Warriors combined their elemental attacks and physical attacks together, causing mass carnage for the Master Nothingness. It was like a great fireworks show in space.

Scion used his blade like body and flaming hair....

Surlent summoned the Tori-Shi, as well as Death Rains and poison winds....

Riza used "Holy Flare" against Master Nothingness and turned its energy into healing compounds for Riza and her friends.......

Dune used Yin and Yang elements simultaneously.......

.....And finally, Ridley used Plasma Rays, alongside his blade-like wings, to cut up the orb within the being. With those final attacks, the Master Nothingness started to disintegrate.

"This cannot be.........AAAAAAAAAAAGH!" the Master Nothingness screeched, finally turning to dust. The Jade Warriors became their normal selves and warped back to Riza's Sanctuary, getting ready to leave. As the sanctuary started to take off, a gigantic dust storm started to blow everything around like a hurricane in a populated city.

"CALLING RIZA'S SANCTUARY! THIS IS COMMANDER KARY OF THE HANA-NIM! THERE IS A NASTY DUST STORM COMING THIS WAY. DO NOT GO ANY FURTHER, THE STORM IS GETTING WORSE AND YOU CAN'T MAKE IT TO YOUR PLANET ALONE!"

"Then what should we do then?" Ridley cried out in panic, dust blowing the flying sanctuary in different directions, sending things flying.

"Hold on, we shall help you all make it back safely." Kary responded, the HAna-Nim carefully approaching the sanctuary. As the warriors tried their best to grab onto something, so they could stay still, the immense mother-ship used some grappling tools to get a hold of the sanctuary, dragging it carefully to where the tools came from, holding on safely.

Everyone in the sanctuary closed their eyes, waiting for this catastrophe to end.

****

---

Back on Dai-Chi, the dust from outer space made the skies become discoloured, transforming the clear blue sky into a sun-bursting orange shade. Everyone there started to worry.

"What is going on!" the Villagers at the city of Babel cried out in panic, noticing the odd tints in the sky.

"Everyone, I think the Nothingness of Beyond has been defeated!" Garlyle cheered out. Everyone then started to feel relieved, looking up at the sky. Finally, everyone and everything on the whole planet witnessed Riza's Sanctuary and the Hana-Nim come from the sky. 

"Saviors have done it! Nothingness is gone!" every creature on Dai-Chi cheered out, witnessing the sanctuary returning to where it once came from.

At last, a long journey is finally over.

****

---

Two years later.........

.......In the Aftermath........

...........Things seemed to be quite different from what the Jade warriors remember everything to be. Ridley decided to stay with Scion, Surlent, Riza and Dune, instead of joining the crew on the Hana-Nim. He felt like he belonged on Dai-Chi, since he inherited the "Yin Jade". Ridley, Scion, Surlent, Riza and Dune were quite relieved about Dai-Chi being saved and peace being brought into their world once again. They were now New Generation Rudras, fulfilling the deeds of the ancient god warriors of long ago.

However, the haunting last days for Samus Aran, Gulim-Che, Xibalba and Azrael have came back to their minds. One day, as the Neo-Rudras were strolling the valley near Riza's Sanctuary, they found trashed remains of the battle cruisers in the mountains, obviously belonging to the Space Hunters.

"I Just can't believe this." Ridley sighed in pity. "Even with all the powers she inherited from the vaccine to fight the viruses, Samus still decided to give up her life, so we may live on."

"I know what you mean Ridley." Surlent said calmly, bowing his head down in sadness. "It was quite an irony indeed."

"I was just thinking......." Riza said, observing the ruins. "If it was not for Samus, Gulim Che, Xibalba and Azrael giving up their lives to save us, we would have lost the chance to live a long life and everything would have to start all over again." 

"I just hope the next life for them will be much better." Dune sighed. "The Space Hunters were born in battle and they died in battle." All the Neo-Rudras gathered around what they called "The Space Hunter Memorial site" and put down many offerings for the heroes in their afterlife and life of re-birth, amongst the belongings, were the Void Destroyers used to save their lives.

"This is for all of you!" Ridley said as he found some paper laggs (money currency of Rudra's world) and put them on all four space ships. "Come on, let us fulfill the destiny of the deceased!" Everyone started to feel a bit more confident about things, as they left the memorial grounds for Samus, Azrael, Xibalba and Gulim-Che, hoping that they could finally rest.

Back at his sanctuary near Vlad and Kyojin's Temple, Scion would keep training himself in being the toughest God Being ever to grace the galaxy. With how he was training, Scion would hardly get rusty and fall behind on what he all learned. Surlent started to create more powerful Jades for those whom are worthy of becoming a Rudra. Dune rejoined Kidd again and started to build great inventions, as well as a couple of beings called 'Iblis', the one that leads deceased souls safely to the Netherworld, and 'Mareyam', the being that predicts danger in their worlds, and destroys anything that threatens the five Neo-Rudras. Professor Jilde was returned to Dai-Chi by the Aeonese Hana-Nim crew, staying in the village of Kahn, helping Zekou and spreading the good words of his sacred daughter.

As for Riza and Ridley, well, Ridley decided to keep Riza company and would both help each other out whenever one or the other had some problems. The Rudra couple were completely devoted to each other, and would do whatever it took to make them and ones they loved happy.

Thus, it is time for the Neo-Rudras to relax and go on about their duties, until one day, when the galaxy will call out for them to help purify things. But in the meantime, everyone celebrated their time of peace and prosperity for as long as it could last.

****

~ The End ~


	10. Afterwards

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Heart of a Dragon

By Karasuhato, the "Raven Dove"

(karasuhato@ecmail.i-p.com)

****

and 

Ultima Mayu

(mayu_roxx@hotmail.com)

****

---

The "Metroid" series is copyright of Nintendo co. ltd.

"Rudra no Hihou" (Rudra's Secret Treasure) is copyright of Squaresoft and Graphical Corporations CROWD inc.

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Afterwards 

I hope you enjoy our story. Me and Mayu put a lot of work into it.

Rudra no Hihou (Rudra's Secret Treasure) is such a wonderful game, but ironically, it has never seen the west, nor did it get too much fanfic attention either. So me and Mayu came up with a plan for crossing Rudra over with another game series we like. "Final Fantasy" crossovers were too done to death, "Chrono" series would have been too hard to take seriously (I like Chrono Trigger, but not in crossover format!), and the "Zelda" series crossover plan would have been a bit too campy. So Mayu had a plan......

......Since we both like the "Metroid" series, and since there were many great "Metroid" crossovers, we decided to use Metroid and Rudra no Hihou!

About the relationship with Ridley and Riza, may you ask? Well, I do think Ridley is the best foe in most video games series to come (screw you FF villains!), but I also had a strange feeling that Ridley was nothing more than a puppet to Mother Brain as well. So I also wrote in a plot of what it would be like if Mother Brian was defeated and Ridley was left alone. To me, I think he would not have been too bad if it were not for Mother Brain, since she seems to have controlled the creatures of Zebes, not letting them have a mind of their own. I also think Ridley would come from another civilization on another world, since there are none of his kind on Zebes; therefore, I came up with the whole concept of Planet Aeon and others like Ridley populating that planet. The relationship between him and Riza was thought up of by Mayu. She told me "Since Riza was a pretty kind and easy going character, it would be up to her to help this former Space Pirate leader to reform his ways." And so the young maiden with the Holy Jade does help Ridley reform and succeeds to win his thawed out heart.

Now, what is with the strange names like "Hana-Nim", "Xibalba", "Azrael" and so on? Well, here is a key origin of some of these names:

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Xibalba- The Mayan god of the Netherworld and darkness, according to Mythical sources of the Mayas of Central America. Since Xibalba is of the Yin/Dark element, I though this name suited him quite well.

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Azrael- According to the Koran, there is an Angel of Death that summoned a light to shorten the lives of the human race on Earth after one woman was saddened over the 500 years of changes onto the planet. Heh, I just like the name, so I felt like using it ^_^

**__**

NOTE: I am fully aware that Orthodox Islam (there is more than one form of Islam) is entirely monotheistic and does not encourage the creation of anthropomorphic figures, play of fantasy, or anything suggesting multiplicity of gods and idol worshiping. This is not presumed to start any religious argument . Many excellent books and articles on formal Islam are available to the interested reader. 

Hana-Nim- Hana-Nim is Korean for "True One", for indeed, a mother-ship from space is indeed the "True One" for exploration.

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Iblis- One of the names for the creatures created by Dune and Kidd. Iblis is originally a fallen angel from the Koran that was a metaphor for restless death.

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Gulim Che- Name of Manchurian origin, meaning "One Whom Serves". The character himself is one whom indeed serves the chairman.

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Dr. Lagua- Lagua in Native American folklore, is a supernatural being who spoke through a Haida shaman who had captured Lagua by clenching his teeth. Lagua figures in the discovery of iron, ushering the Haida into the Native American Iron Age.

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Chief Kazeten- "Kaze" is Japanese for "Wind" or "Air", and "Ten" is Japanese for "Heaven"; therefore, Kazeten, means Heaven's Wind.

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Ryu-clan- Ryu means "Dragon" in Japanese. Appropriate for a race of a Reptilian clan.

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General Arvis- Arvis is the Alternate name for "Argus" in Greek Mythology.

According to legend, Argus is a giant with a hundred eyes. After Zeus had changed his lover Io into a calf to protect her from the wrath of Hera. Hera demanded that the cow was given to her. She then charged Argus with the task of guarding it. 

Argus was lulled to sleep by Hermes who then killed him, as Zeus had ordered him to do. Hermes brought Io back to Egypt, where she returned to her human form again. After Argus' death, Hera placed his hundred eyes on the tail of the peacock, her favorite animal.

I came up with that name, because when Ridley recovered consciousness on the Hana-Nim mother ship, Arvis would constantly eye Ridley's actions, just like his Greek Myth counterpart.

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Kary: Another version of the name "Kali", whom was the East Indian Goddess of Rise and Downfall. Her lover was Shiva, the destroyer. 

Oh, and just to let you know, this story was written before the release of "Metroid Prime" and "Metroid Fusion", so things might be a little different in the story, so don't be too judgmental with things. 

I also had people E-mail me about why Ridley was the main character instead of Samus Aran. Even though I do like Samus Aran (she could kick Lara Croft ass!), I just thought the monsters of Metroids did not get enough attention as her, especially Ridley, so that is why he is main character of story instead of Samus.

So, I hope you were pleased with "Heart of a Dragon" and drop me a line if you want me to write more, okay ^_^

Love,

Karasuhato, the Raven-Dove


End file.
